Armed and Curious

I'm an entrepreneur: Cast a wide net with contractor registries

2011-03-09T13:31:00.001-05:00

I was having an discussion today with a good friend who, like me has been forced into unplanned entrepreneurship, about where he could find some business for his social media consulting firm. I asked him if he was registered in the federal Central Contractor Registry or the Virginia commonwealth registry, eVA. He had not heard of them or realized there was any advantage to going through all the hassle to do so. I implored him to do it because I am a big believer that when you are fishing for business its best to cast as wide a net as possible when starting out and even more so when the net is free.

The Central Contractor Registry (CCR) (https://www.bpn.gov/ccr/) is the federal governments one stop shop for all contractors. The regulations for doing business with the government state that according to the FAR 4.11, prospective vendors must be registered in CCR prior to the award of a contract; basic agreement, basic ordering agreement, or blanket purchase agreement. In addition, pursuant to FAR 52.204-7, to register in CCR, a firm must have a Data Universal Numbering System (DUNS) number. The DUNS Number is assigned by Dun & Bradstreet, Inc. (D&B) to identify unique business entities.

So, the bottom line is that if you hope to do any business with the federal government you need to just go through the pain and agony of getting your DUNS Number and registering in CCR. There are some exceptions to the rule spelled out on the CCR site but for the average small business you should just do it. It really isn't terribly hard and the process is pretty self explanatory. I figured it out all by myself and if that's possible then anyone can do it. Its not without its challenges for a start up like mine. I had to really put my brain to work deciding what is the appropriate

When I launched ScoutComms I made my way down to our county economic development office as soon as I registered my 'Doing Business As' (DBA) with the courthouse. The very helpful staff listened to my just made up pitch about what we would be doing then started rattling off things for me to do right away including registering in the electronic database for the commonwealth called eVA. As it turns out, here in Virginia to do business with both state and local offices you need to be in eVA just like the CCR for the feds.

Fortunately, the registration required pretty much the same basic info. For both you are going to have spend some quality time figuring what your North American Industry Classification System (NAICS) codes are going to be for your business so that you can compete for the right opportunities and be found by agencies looking for your services. But, this is something you need to figure out anyway.

Have I gone after a single opportunity offered by either of these databases yet? Nope. But if I seen one I like I am ready to go for it and if by some fluke of fate a deal falls in my lap I will be ready. I have already met with government officials in my travels and almost to a man the first thing they have asked me is "Are you in the CCR?" My recommendation to fellow entrepreneurs is its best to be able to say "yes" than say "What the hell is the CCR?"

I am not much of a fisherman but I do know its a bad idea to leave your biggest nets on the dock because it was inconvenient to load them on the boat.

Posted via email from FPWellman Blog

ROTC returns to Harvard...with class

2011-03-04T14:22:00.001-05:00

I am truly proud of my second Alma Mater today as Harvard President Drew Faust today signed an agreement with Secretary of the Navy Ray Mabus returning the Navy Reserve Officer Training Corps program to the campus for the first time in nearly 40 years. While this is significant in itself, I have to say I am most proud of the way in which Harvard handled this transition with decorum and patriotism.

While other Ivy League campuses, like Columbia, have seen outrageous and embarrassing incidents as they haggle over the idea of returning ROTC to their campuses due to the repeal of "Don't Ask, Don't Tell", (see this story from the NY Post:http://nyp.st/fLizAE) Harvard kept its promise without major drama and while maintaining the patrician image of the nations oldest university. I admit I had my doubts about how it would be handled from my own experience as a student in 2006-2007. While the graduate schools are supporters of the military the college had a much more vocal resistance. You could always count on kids from the college picketing a visiting general or military themed event so the question of welcoming the military back to campus seemed in doubt.

But by all accounts President Faust led this effort directly and viewed it as a simple matter of promises made and promises kept. Harvard has said officially for over a decade that until DADT is repealed they would not support ROTC and upon its shelving the campus would re-open to the U.S. military. She announced in December she was happy to speak with the military and the Navy immediately stepped up to do so. It is the perfect first organization as Harvard was one of the first universities in the nation to join Navy ROTC back in 1926. Midshipmen will still attend their ROTC classes at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology ROTC battalion but they are now welcome on campus to wear their uniforms, use offices, classes and athletic fields and a reserve officer professor has been tasked to oversee the program implementation.

Will there be a rush of students wanting to join ROTC? Probably not. But no longer will the stain of resistance to military service blacken our nations premier institution of higher learning. A place that teaches students from freshman to graduate student that service is a higher calling, for 40 years has had to caveat those values with the exclusion of the military. Today, that is no longer the case and as a veteran of four combat tours, over 22 years of military service and a graduate of the Harvard Kennedy School of Government, I am thrilled to no longer have to caveat my attendance at the school either.

For more on this announcement read the Harvard Gazette article published last night: http://bit.ly/ibfOfB

Posted via email from FPWellman Blog

A failed Rolling Stone hit job on a good leader

2011-03-01T18:54:00.001-05:00

Michael Hastings rolled out his latest story on a general officer in Afghanistan last week to great fanfare but its clear he and his editors really blew it this time. By taking the word of a single officer, then only loosely verifying pieces of the story from others, he has instead shown his own ignorance of Army doctrine, the nature of the Afghan training mission headquarters and a fundamental lack of understanding of military protocols.

As an amateur writer I have been chewing on my own expose of the many failings in the tale of Lieutenant Colonel Michael Holmes and his righteous battle against the forces of evil all weekend. Then today I came across an incredibly well researched post from fellow retired Lieutenant Colonel and blogger Bruce McQuain who lays out in great detail the fallacies in Hastings story and the real story of the charges leveled against LTC Holmes that led to his ouster from theater with a General Officer Memorandum of Reprimand.

The facts are pretty clear even now when you look at Holmes' business Facebook page (here: https://www.facebook.com/notes/syzygylogos-llc-a-strategic-communications-firm/syzygy-the-alignment-of-experience-and-inspiration/110437152314114) that he and his subordinate conceived of and launched a business while in theater and then portrayed their duties in country as part of their business venture. They violated, and are still in violation, of numerous articles of the Uniform Code of Military Justice as well as the Joint Ethics Regulations dictating relationships between superiors and subordinates and using your official positions for personal gain.

This is a poorly sourced, completely false story with incorrect accusations and the absolute smartest thing Rolling Stone should do is retract the story in total and issue an apology. I can't imagine a scenario where that will occur though. They will stick to their guns and roll out their defenders claiming the Army is trying to hide a secret from the public instead. I can honestly say from having served in the Iraq sister organization of NATO Training Mission-Afghanistan that there is no credibility to these accusations against LTG Caldwell.

As a professional communicator I was suspicious of Hastings and Rolling Stone's goals from the beginning of this tempest. The fact that the article used the same "branding" as the one with McChrystal sent my BS radar to maximum. Titled "Another Runaway General: Army Deploys Psy-Ops on U.S. Senators" its obvious that they were trying to capture the magic of the last take down that generated the biggest circulation numbers for the magazine in decades along with an award for Hastings. The editors and Hastings saw dollar signs again so with only a weeks worth of research they took a story that had been turned down by the Tampa Tribune and ran with it. Now the facts are slowly trickling out and it just doesn't look good for them this go around.

It is to be noted that the Army has the option to recall LTC Holmes and his side-kick MAJ Laurel Levine back to active duty to face criminal charges if the investigation currently being conducted at the direction of General Petraeus finds they violated the UCMJ. I haven't read it in a while but I am pretty sure slander and libel against a superior officer are in there somewhere.

I will leave it to Bruce McQuain to lay things out much better than I possibly can. Click on the link to go to the Hot Air site for the rest of his post. If you have time going, over to 'This ain't Hell's take on it is a lot of fun too: http://thisainthell.us/blog/?p=22416

Hot Air: Rolling Stone’s shot at General Caldwell misfires

posted at 8:48 am on February 28, 2011 by Bruce McQuain

Apparently, after the article he wrote about Gen. Stanley McChrystal was instrumental in seeing McChrystal relieved of command in Afghanistan, Michael Hastings of Rolling Stone believed he had carved out a niche for himself. Going after the brass in war zones.

However his latest attempt, in which he accuses LTG William Caldwell, the general in charge of the NATO training mission in Afghanistan, of an effort to use “PsyOps” (Psychological Operations) against visiting US Senators misfired badly. For anyone who read the piece and has spent any time at all in the services the picture that formed immediately in the mind, given Hasting’s source, was “disgruntled officer”. And, as it turns out, that’s pretty much on the mark.

Hastings apparently took the word of LTC Michael Holmes as the premise and theme of his article. In fact he sets it up with a quote from Holmes:

“My job in psy-ops is to play with people’s heads, to get the enemy to behave the way we want them to behave,” says Lt. Colonel Michael Holmes, the leader of the IO unit, who received an official reprimand after bucking orders. “I’m prohibited from doing that to our own people. When you ask me to try to use these skills on senators and congressman, you’re crossing a line.”

Except LTC Holmes job wasn’t “in psy-ops” (Psychological Operations) nor is LTC Holmes trained in PsyOps. That is a very specific Military Occupational Specialty (MOS) that requires school training. The place in which PsyOps is taught is the John F. Kennedy Special Warfare Center and School at Ft. Bragg, NC. According to Special Operations Command, the Special Warfare School has never heard of LTC Michael Holmes.

Hastings also implies that Holmes received an official reprimand for “bucking orders” associated with the claim he was to use “psy-ops” on Senators. In fact he was instead cited for numerous violations of the Uniform Code of Military Justice (UCMJ) that included ignoring orders not to go off post in civilian clothes, surrendering his weapon to civilians in civilian restaurants, conflict of interest and telling falsehoods to superiors, among others. The reprimand Holmes received had little if anything to do with the reason implied by Hastings.

When asked by his immediate supervisor, a Colonel, whether LTC Holmes had permission to leave post in civilian clothes, Holmes told his his boss that the former Chief of Staff of the US’s Afghan Training Mission had given he and MAJ Laural Levine permission to wear civilian clothes off post. However, when contacted by the officer who conducted the Command’s AR 15-6 investigation into the matter, the former Chief of Staff, in a sworn statement, denied ever giving anyone blanket permission to wear civilian clothes or dine off post. For one thing, he didn’t have the authority to do such a thing. The former Chief of Staff stated that any such permission would have to be given by a general officer as required by the two different command policies. In this case that permission would have had to come from LTG Caldwell. No such permission was ever given. By claiming that the Chief of Staff had given them permission when that wasn’t the case, Holmes and Levine were in violation of Article 107 of the UCMJ – making a false official statement.

Another officer who was invited to go out with LTC Holmes and his subordinate, MAJ Levine, gave a sworn statement that Holmes said that he and Levine routinely went off post to restaurants in civilian clothes for social purposes not official business, that they surrendered their weapons at the Afghan civilian establishments and that they drank alcohol. All of those activities are in direct contravention of standing orders and policies in Afghanistan. The officer who gave the sworn statement declined the invitation to go with them.

The conflict of interest charge came about when Holmes and Levine decided they could use their experience in strategic communications to start a civilian business. On its face, there’s nothing wrong with that if you wait until you’re in a civilian capacity to do so. But when you use duty time and DoD assets to promote your business, or misrepresent your duty as something other than it is, that raises definite ethical problems. Holmes and Levine did both of these things. And as such were in violation of numerous parts of the Joint Ethics Regulations.

For instance, they used their DoD positions for their own personal gain, namely to pass off their work in training Afghans from the Ministry of the Interior and Ministry of Defense as work done on behalf of their company SyzygyLogos LLC. On the company’s Facebook page, in an entery dated April 8th, 2010, you’ll see pictures of Holmes, in civilian dress, under a post title which says, “SyzygyLogos LLC, A Strategic Communications Firm – Images from our training sessions with the Afghan Government.”

That was clearly done with the intent to generate business for their private company. Additionally they listed either the US Government or the Afghan MoI and MoD as their “current clients”. All of this activity violated UCMJ article 92 (Failure to obey an order or regulation – i.e. the ethics regulation). Both the article 92 and 107 violations also lead to a third UCMJ charge for LTC Holmes, violation of article 133 (conduct unbecoming an officer and gentleman).

Read the rest of this post: http://hotair.com/archives/2011/02/28/rolling-stones-shot-at-general-caldwell-misfires/?print=1

Posted via email from FPWellman Blog

I'm an entrepreneur: Oh crap!

2011-02-21T12:41:00.001-05:00

I am now a proud entrepreneur. I took the leap and started my own small niche public relations consulting firm because I had dreamed of it my whole life and truly felt that the tail-end of the largest recession in my lifetime--right before Christmas--was the absolute best time to start a business. This was done after having carefully surveyed the market place and set aside thousands of dollars to kick things off right just like all of the business books teach you.

Yeah...that's not how it went at all.

The real story is a bit less noble, yet, the fact remains the same that I am now a proud entrepreneur. My advice to others is simple: Don't do it like me.

The real story of my business venture started when I found myself out of work from my old firm in mid-October. Soon I discovered that even with my strong professional credentials and a top education from both West Point and Harvard, none of the communications firms in DC were hiring at that time of year. If nothing else, they sure weren't going to pay me the generous package I had left behind.

So, on the last day of my 30-day severance period, I pulled my thumb out of my mouth, unwound myself from the fetal position, showered for the first time in days and drove down to the courthouse to file as the founder of my own agency.

My business adventure had begun in earnest and like many entrepreneurs it has been a mixture of good luck, timing and hard work to start seeing some early successes that have allowed us to keep the adventure going. What my little firm does is provide support to agencies and others working in the aerospace and defense market.

The whole idea came about because while I was desperately looking for a job I noticed that in each agency I visited there wasn't a single person with any military experience whatsoever. Time and again leaders at firms told me they couldn't hire me because I was too senior or too expensive--but they would kill to contract me for my defense experience. I am a little thick headed but once I hear something three times it sounds like it might be a trend or possibly a business model.

So, ScoutComms was born leveraging my 22 years in the Army and last year in the agency world to bridge the gap between creative firms and the weird world that is the aerospace and defense sector. Three months later we have a nice list of clients who are finding that having someone who speaks the language of the military focused client on their team is worth the investment and is paying off for them in contract wins and a flattened learning curve. Military communications and the language of the Department of Defense, or defense manufacturing business, are almost alien planets to many in the creative world so having somebody who speaks both languages can make a big difference in the success of an effort.

While this isn't how I planned on launching a business one of the many things I learned as a Ranger and staff officer for General Petraeus is that no good plan survives for long so most of the time you just have to improvise. As it turns out, I am a master of improvisation.

I will keep posting the lessons I learn as an unexpected entrepreneur. To learn more about our little start up check out our website at www.ScoutCommsUSA.com.

Posted via email from FPWellman Blog

Egypt's Army holds the key to the future

2011-01-30T15:48:00.002-05:00

Egypt's future hangs in the balance today as protests continue and the armed forces have stepped up their presence in the streets. The question on everyone's mind is which way will it go? Where does the loyalty of the Army lie? Is it with the nation as a whole and its people or with the ruler who has held power for 30 years and effectively shaped the service into his own model? It is almost impossible to say but from my experience the Army will attempt to thread the needle and maintain order while allowing change to take place without open warfare.

When I was a young staff officer working for then Lieutenant General Tommy Franks I was fortunate to serve on the joint headquarters staff for Operation Bright Star in Egypt. I was able to spend a considerable amount of time getting to know my Egyptian counterparts and talk about the philosophy of professional arms and the service. Of the many foreign Army's I have worked with over the years I was distinctly impressed by the professionalism and poise of my Egyptian counterparts.

I spent one remarkable evening sipping tea in a small shop with an instructor at their military academy discussing the differences between our two Army's. I fondly remember the lesson he told me that though American's have remarkable technology at our finger tips the real difference that made us so hard to beat was the speed at which we thought. He felt strongly that no other armed force in the world was as agile and able to make decisions as quickly on their feet as was the United States. We build technology that is fast only to keep up with our ability to make snap decisions not to create the ability to do so.

That Colonel lamented his own top down Army which could not move so quickly and had paid the price in war against the Israeli's who were able to nearly match the US pace.

Today that Army is faced with the need to make quick decisions on where their loyalties lie and to whom they will ultimately serve. We can all only hope that the stability of the region and the future of their nation wins out over the knee jerk need to protect an aging leader with no popular support. The fate of more than just Egypt will rely on the continued patience and restraint of an Army caught in the middle of change.

I believe from my experience they will choose the right path and preserve their nation.

Posted via email from FPWellman Blog

Fighting the China "Stealth" Fighter Meme

2011-01-28T14:49:00.001-05:00

Over the last two weeks the media has been abuzz with the explosive news that the Chinese had launched a successful “fifth generation” stealth fighter test during a visit by Defense Secretary Robert Gates and the US has been taken by surprise by this leap forward. But how accurate is this actual theme and what facts is it based on? If you follow the story history you see the western press has been busily repeating what might be nothing more than Chinese propaganda with little regard to actual facts or official confirmation.

The story originated when photos were allegedly leaked onto the internet out of China followed by a statement from supposed expert sources in the country. With little done to stop this “leak” by Chinese authorities it clearly implies it was no mistake. From there the story was picked up by western media and the meme was born. Suddenly everyone was talking about how the Chinese have leaped forward and are building a fleet to threaten the US dominance of the Pacific.

But is this even an actual stealth fighter at all? Many of us who have worked in aviation didn’t see a stealth fighter but a stew of pieces of several western aircraft all stuck together in a cool plane. Nathan Hodge of the Wall Street Journal hosted an excellent discussion on January, 19th with Richard Aboulafia, an aviation analyst with the Teal Group, an aerospace and defense consulting firm, that pointedly laid out all the reasons this current jet isn’t really stealthy at all from the odd canards on the front, to the exposed engines (full story here http://blogs.wsj.com/washwire/2011/01/19/chinas-j-20-fighter-stealthy-or-just-stealthy-looking/ ) . Several stories have followed picking up that jet as seen in the pictures and video doesn’t meet any of the standards of what would be considered a stealth aircraft beyond it was labeled as such in the initial “leak”.

But this didn’t slow down the meme. I listened to experts on WTOP in DC talking about how the Chinese now had a long range fighter that could take on our F-22′s in air-to-air combat. This was all fantasy. We don’t even know if it can go supersonic yet no matter if it can conduct air-to-air refueling or what kind of avionics and targeting systems are onboard. Frankly, no one even knows if its anything more than a remote controlled airplane from the blurry footage we have seen, yet the meme was born and grew by the day.

Finally, this week Pentagon spokesman Geoff Morrell chastised the press on the whole affair. He said “reports went “a little over the top” in proclaiming that China had achieved stealth fighter capability, or had even run a “successful test” of its J-20 prototype. “I think that is another case of us all being a little premature here,” Morrell told Pentagon reporters in a Wednesday briefing.” according to Kevin Baron at Stars and Stripes.

So, why is the press so eager to buy into Chinese information that is of dubious origination but so skeptical of our own claims? It goes to the traditional story telling world. You have all the richest elements of an intriguing story with all of the juicy elements the instant news cycle loves like the US being caught by surprise by the burgeoning and somehow superior Chinese; the leap ahead in technology; and the political timing of the flight occurring during Gates visit. It all fell happily into the laps of a lot of journalists who might not really know enough about the technology to question the story at all so they ran with their usual “experts” to get the story out quickly.

There are a couple of lessons here. First, it is critical for both government public affairs leaders and public relations experts in industry to ensure the media is getting facts and not allow a meme to go unchecked. The story broke on January 11th but Mr. Morrell didn’t pointedly shoot it down directly until January 26th. Over 15 days to present an official denial is a long time for what is usually a pretty agile Pentagon communications response system and was probably tied to the challenge of confirming facts and getting an official intelligence based assessment.

Second, the real issue lies in media professionals who are happy to accept the possible propaganda of another nation so eagerly when it fits the political framework of the day. In this case, the story played right into the idea we are somehow falling behind the surging Chinese technology and economy. The Chinese masterfully handed an information operations coups to journalists too eager to accept anything that confirms the nagging suspicion we are failing as a nation to lead the world of innovation. Journalists must confirm stories with true experts. I actually heard a retired Army Major as an expert on one national news outlet who knew nothing about aviation bemoaning our unpreparedness for this new red tide.

Skepticism is a healthy habit of any good quality journalist. Questioning the truth of our government is now an accepted practice in the western press, they need to approach other countries with just as healthy a doubt. Maybe it really is a stealth fighter that is leaps ahead for them but nothing we have seen from any source provides anything to demonstrate that is the case. Chances are better than anything else that the Chinese are high-fiving each other at yet another propaganda score at the US expense.

(Posted originally at my ScoutComms company blog http://scoutcommsusa.com/2011/01/28/the-chinese-stealth-jet-meme/) Follow @ScoutComms on Facebook and Twitter.

Posted via email from FPWellman Blog

SECDEF picks a soldier's soldier for Army Chief with Dempsey

2011-01-06T14:55:00.001-05:00

Secretary of Defense Robert Gates announced today that he is nominating Army General Martin Dempsey, current Training and Doctrine Command commanding offier, as the next Army Chief-of-Staff to replace General George Casey. I was fortunate to serve as GEN Dempsey's public affairs officer when he was newly promoted Lieutenant General in Baghdad as the commander of Multi-National Security Transition Command-Iraq and I can say personally this is the best choice they could have made for the critical period the Army faces.

He is a true soldier's soldier who understands the meat and potatoes of being a soldier and couples it with an intellectual prowess which he hides behind a humble easy going personality.

I could not be happier as a retired soldier looking at the instituton as it faces difficult times with proposed budget cuts, drawdowns of forces and ongoing difficulties of suicide and warrior care. Dempsey approaches problems methodically with a calm down-to-earth approach that will keep the Army on a trajectory of success in the next decade.

Congratulations to General Dempsey...and congratulations to the entire Army for inheriting a great leader for the force.

Posted via email from FPWellman Blog

ScoutComms: The Department of Defense gained a social media beachhead in 2010

2011-01-03T08:58:00.001-05:00

There is no question that 2010 will go down as the year that social media became a normal part of the communications arsenal for the Department of Defense. The year began with a withering battle raging over embracing the medium at all and finished with its near wholesale adoption across the department. While still a far cry from being a standard and normal part of defense communications the battle over the first beachhead in official implementation of social media is past.

When the year began a bureaucratic battle was raging over the pending publication of an overall Department of Defense Social Media policy. Then Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for Public Affairs Price Floyd was spearheading the effort to find a reasonable policy for allowing access to social media channels for public affairs officials as well as all service members. He recognized clearly that new media was more than just a fad or a diversion and was quickly becoming a major communications tool for public outreach. What he faced was a department network security architecture that was completely against the idea of allowing any tools that included things like “Farmville” and “Re-tweeting” unlimited access to their systems.

It was a surprising fight within the department as the network security gurus lined up against the public affairs advocates. Even as a very public review of a new policy was being conducted the Marines banned access to social networks on their official computers and U.S. Stratcom very publicly pondered a department wide ban. In the end a new policy was crafted and Directive-Type Memorandum (DTM) 09-026 – Responsible and Effective Use of Internet Based Capabilities was published on February 25th. The very simple two page document signed by the Deputy Secretary of Defense explicitly directed that the Non-Secure “NIPR” network would be set to allow access to social media sites for official use.

Further policy clarifications would lay out rules and responsibilities for managing these outlets but in one fell swoop a battle that had been fought for over three years was finished. In previous years managers of official social media sites would come to work and find their access suddenly revoked and spend their day convincing Defense Information Systems Agency contacts or their local IT to re-grant their waivers. That fight would now be a thing of the past.

The changes have been dramatic as more commands, leaders and the individual services have embraced the various social networks as primary channels to communicate with the public. Today general officers use their Facebook pages to seek public input on changes to bus routes on post, installations push weather notifications by Twitter and military bands post their latest performances to their YouTube channels.

The numbers speak for themselves. At the beginning of the year there were less than 150 registered Facebook pages on the Department’s official list and few of the other major social networks. As of today between the department, the four services and their subordinate units there are over 1,339 officially registered Facebook pages, 281 Flickr pages, 545 Twitter profiles and 227 YouTube channels.

It is clear that 2010 was the year that the battle for a beachhead in the emerging media world was established for the US military. Like many fights that first toehold is often some of the bloodiest fighting but the hard part is exploiting that win and taking the fight to the next level of success. That will be the next challenge. A coordinated campaign against the Navy’s official Facebook page by Iranian’s irate about the use of the term “Arabian Gulf” gave a taste of the kinds of challenges that will be faced and have to be dealt with as social media grows as an official means of communicating with the public.

In an email exchange on December 31st with Price Floyd, now the Vice President for Digital Media Strategy at BAE Systems, he commented that “in 2010 the Defense Department went from acknowledging the need to use social media to one of the leading large organizations to leverage it for its purposes. There is no going back. In fact I believe the Defense Department acceptance of social media also means it is better prepared to use whatever communication platforms come next.”

The coming year will see more changes as the new users of these various channels find ways to take advantage of the speed and open nature of the communications they foster. As is often the case in military operations, success in one fight opens a new field of battle to be overcome and the Department of Defense has moved into a new field that few government agencies are as involved in and few so aggressively embracing.

This post originally written for my firm and appeared on the ScoutComms blog at: http://scoutcommsusa.com/2011/01/02/the-department-of-defense-gained-a-social-media-beachhead-in-2010/

Posted via email from FPWellman Blog

Avoid being the victim of satire

2010-11-18T10:19:00.001-05:00

It seems large French advertising holding company Publicis Groupe discovered the dangers of posting videos on YouTube ripe for satire yesterday. A well meaning cool company video is now an improbably hilarious and moderately profane piece instead.

Jim Edwards of BNET has a story up on it here: http://bit.ly/9lCdl9 that shows how in an effort to highlight their use of Twitter, Publicis created a video that shows the companies offices, staff and executives all communicating in bird chips and squeaks. Its actually a clever little piece but it was ripe for the picking for an anonymous creative genius to quickly go through and add a helpful bird translation in the form of subtitles. In the end they seem to have issues with sharing of inappropriate pictures in the company instead of a social media savvy staff.

I think Edwards covers it nicely but it is an abject lesson in thinking about how your products can be manipulated for satire, or worse, for malicious purposes. I honestly believe its almost impossible to anticipate all of the many possibilities that could occur but you also have to understand the YouTube environment today. This is a place where one of the biggest videos lately is the repurposing of a news video of an angry crime victim using Autotune to create a hit song. Antoine Dodson is moving out of the projects thanks to the Gregory Brothers and the 'Bed Intruder' song. With 41 million views and a contract for a TV show they prove there is money and fame to be gained with some clever editing on YouTube.

Don't forget to do what the military calls "Red Teaming" of your products before they hit the net. In other words, take someone outside the project who is a little bit rebellious to look at things and identify how your idea could make someone else famous or rich instead of you. Its common in agencies to do this for traditional products but in the age of YouTube instant fame its all the more important even for your own companies pieces. Its a strategic approach that pays huge dividends when creating operational plans and will do the same for your creative products.

Here is the original video from Publicis Groupe:

And the new one posted just 24 hours later by "CampaignMag" with helpful subtitles:

You can't guarantee you won't be a victim of satire but executing some due diligence can at least minimize your chances.

Posted via email from FPWellman Blog

The front row for 'Taps'

2010-10-08T23:41:00.003-04:00

Last Friday I sat in the sun dappled shade on a bench in Jefferson Barracks National Cemetery as my father was honored as a Marine for the last time. For me it was the first time I had sat in the front row at a military funeral. I have always been standing in the crowd at the back but this time I couldn't hide.

My father was a Marine at the tail end of World War II. By the time he was able get in the Corps, the war was nothing but an occupation but he had to get in and serve. His service was spent in Puerto Rico and Alabama repairing aircraft and crashing jeeps in swamps. But, it left an indelible mark of odd military terms, the compelling need to call the bathroom the head and a ridiculous sense of the appropriate time to wake up your children for the rest of his life.

He passed away quietly in a hospital bed several weeks ago as he struggled to breath following complications suffered after what should have been a harmless home accident. Instead he went to join my mother who had preceded him by five years. He took his time in his way and after 81 years could say he lived a good life.

Then last week I made my way home with my family to join my brothers and sister as we were sat in the front row to stare at the stand that would hold the small box of his cremated remains under a shelter in the center of the cemetery. A bagpiper played off in the woods a few yards away as we settled in our seats. My parents friends quietly gathered behind us. I could feel their eyes on my back and I longed for a spot on the wall behind them.

To our left stood a remarkable honor guard of ancient men in crisp Marine Corps uniforms with neat M-14 rifles at the rest position. Each one with the lines of a long ago war etched on their faces but a grim watery eyed determination to honor a fellow Marine on his final mission. Volunteers who ensure that no veteran is buried alone.

I realized I felt terribly exposed. The comfort of the back row was not mine this day. For all these years I was always able to quietly huddle away from prying eyes. As a soldier I know what is coming in this ceremony and as a veteran of four tours of war I know the routine all to well. I know which parts will make my shoulders shudder and which parts will make my eyes water. It is a routine carefully hidden-- when hidden in the back row.

The music stopped as two young Marines collected his remains and a flag from the hearse and marched quietly to stand before us. The box was laid down as I surveyed these young men. The sergeant had a chest of ribbons including all the trappings of a reservist with multiple mobilizations and three stars on his Iraq Service Medal. There were no lines on his face and in many ways it looked like he could barely shave but he had probably seen more life and death combat than I had seen over my 22 years.

I knew I would be found out as the flag was unfurled and the honor guard marched a few paces away. I knew what would happen next as they raised their rifles and the shots began to echo. Three volleys for a not so young Marine sergeant and my shoulders began to shudder as they always do. I braced myself for the distant bugle as it took up 'Taps'.

A simple song that has so much meaning to a veteran. At West Point it meant it was time to call it a night. In my youth I found 'Taps' a soothing sound at night. It meant peace fell on the often chaotic halls of the Academy. It was a time I cherished for many years.

Then I went to war and 'Taps' became the tear producing symbol of another life lost in service. The lone bugle is the most mournful sound I can imagine. The tune drifted across our seats as tears fell on my suit. I was thinking how much I hated being in the front row as the bagpipes rose again in a final salute to a great Marine, father and patriot. In the end a folded flag was presented as the sergeant thanked my oldest brother on behalf of a grateful nation for my fathers service.

I thanked my father for giving me the desire to serve for so many years and mildly cursed that service for making 'Taps' forever a sad song in my heart.

As we stood to head home I promised myself to be in the back row again next time.

Posted via email from FPWellman Blog

Wikileaks: Afgans are dying...and it's you killing them

2010-08-10T10:57:00.001-04:00

I have been following the debacle with Wikileaks pretty closely since it broke and I am amazed at how foolish and clueless so many commenter's are about what all of this means for the Afghan people and not just our soldiers. The fact is that these self described openness crusaders have exposed hundreds of our partners who are trying to make a better country for themselves to the threat of death. I have witnessed the results of exposing local partners to the enemy and the blood that flows because of it.

In 2004 my interpreter in Iraq was a beheaded brutally on video by Al-Qaeda after his name was found on the phone of another interpreter from his company. He left two daughters and a widow due to poor operational security. Then, just three years ago my dearest Iraqi partner , an incredibly brave Sunni sheik, was hit by an IED and lost both his legs after years of attempts by AQI. In today's wired world, revealing the names, and even the vaguely identifying information of locals exposes them to murder and intimidation by our enemies.

The UN reported today that Afghan civilian deaths have sharply spiked at the hands of the insurgents in the past year. Even as casualties due to NATO combat action have fallen more civilians are dying at the hands of Al-Qaeda and Taliban terrorists. See the AP story here: http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/as_afghanistan;_ylt=AkWAFx5DQS7JJ_7aMdK52pKs0NUE;_ylu=X3oDMTJmNWwzZDUwBGFzc2V0A2FwLzIwMTAwODEwL2FzX2FmZ2hhbmlzdGFuBGNwb3MDMgRwb3MDNgRzZWMDeW5fdG9wX3N0b3J5BHNsawN1bmFmZ2hhbmNpdmk

We face an enemy who is relentless in murdering the Afghan people if only to intimidate them into not cooperating with the elected government of their country. They have announced in no uncertain terms that they are scrubbing the thousands of reports released by Wikileaks to find collaborators and reports are already coming in that informants are being murdered.

Yet you see people like Michael Moore and Wikileaks founder Julian Assange calling alleged leaker Bradley Manning a hero on TV as activists call for his release. Assange and Manning are murderers. They are cold blooded fools who sit comfortably in the dark while soldiers and civilians risk their lives to make a better world and actually risk their lives and not just their freedom.

Just this morning five human - rights groups called on Wikileaks to not release information that is endangering the lives of innocent Afghan's. http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703428604575419580947722558.html?mod=WSJ_hpp_MIDDLENexttoWhatsNewsTop Julian Assange doesn't care. His response was a pathetic whine about not having enough people to do the scrubbing and asking for the groups to help.

No, Julian the answer is for you to stop releasing secret documents that don't reveal war crimes but only cause people to be murdered for your egotistical drive for more press coverage.

The United States government must act swiftly and ruthlessly in stopping this information flow and the murders that result. The clock is ticking and innocent people are hiding in fear as our government issues press releases and empty threats. I have seen personally what happens when brave people stand up for their country and are betrayed by foolish partners who don't understand the risks. Its time we stopped this atrocity from occurring and stopped acting like this is just a freedom of information issue. It's truly collateral murder and the blood is on Wikileaks hands and all of their co-conspirators.

Posted via email from FPWellman Blog

Breaking the cardinal rule of blogging

2010-07-28T11:24:00.001-04:00

I am a rule breaker. Its true. All I ever hear is how the number one rule of a good blogger is to post regularly and don't take long breaks. I guess my month and a half hiatus blows that right away.

Life has been a bit interesting these last two months as my family and I finally moved to a new home and at the same time I was promoted to Vice President of my company with an accompanying increase in responsibilities and demands. But, those excuses are just that...excuses. I will get back on the horse and write once again. There is so much to talk about with the fall out from the McChrystal affair and Wikileaks issues. Can't wait to get some thoughts down on all of those.

So, my apologies for disappearing and I hope folks are still interested in my musings going forward.

Posted via email from FPWellman Blog

It's time for ROTC to return to Harvard

2010-05-31T14:11:00.004-04:00

On Friday the Dean of the Harvard Kennedy School of Government, the esteemed and level headed David Ellwood, joined the deans of eight other schools of public policy in urging Congress to repeal the 'Don't Ask, Don't Tell' policy which forces homosexual military personnel to serve in silence. The repeal has been, in many ways, a foregone conclusion for many of us who have served over the life of this odd and in many ways misguided policy.

It is right that the Department of Defense and Congress come together to formulate a measured and appropriate end to this now out of date law. Friday, the House voted to move towards repeal. So now that Congress has made the first major steps to ending DADT and DoD is studying the departure of the rule, it is time that Harvard repeal its own ill conceived exclusionary policy against the Reserve Officer Training Corps.

Recent straw polls of students at the university have shown a strong majority of students support reinstating ROTC and even the Student Labor Action Movement which protested in the past against military recruiting on campus has stated they will not oppose a return of the organization once 'DADT' is gone according to a recent editorial in the student run Crimson paper. http://www.thecrimson.harvard.edu/column/stubborn-things/article/2010/2/19/rotc-mawn-dont-harvard/

As a military student at the Kennedy School as part of the class of '07 I was greeted with overwhelming support and respect for my career choice and experiences. At the time I was one of the few multi-tour Iraq veterans on campus and was constantly invited to speak on panels and conferences about what I had seen and my view on the issues. I was never once questioned on my intelligence or the value of my input to the academic environment.

Under the leadership of David Gergen and the Center for Public Leadership we began a program recognizing the veterans of Harvard and the speakers panel we hosted that year with five veterans was standing room only in the JFK Jr. Forum. Again and again it has been emphasized by the leadership of the university how the richness of the military experience and service to the nation provides an important part of the fabric of the school. It is a tradition that existed long before today's arguments bogged down in national policy.

After all, it is easy to forget that the Memorial Church smack in the middle of the Yard has the following inscription over the south entrance to the Memorial Room "In grateful memory of the Harvard men who died in the World War we have built this Church." Its official description: "The Memorial Church is the church for Harvard University, dedicated on Armistice Day 1932 in memory of those who died in World War I, a gift of the alumni to the University. Memorials have been added to remember those who have died in the wars since."

It is far past time for Harvard to make any more excuses to exclude students who desire to serve their country as some sort of lower academic form. Forcing them to attend ROTC classes at MIT while President Faust hypocritically attends their commissioning ceremony must end.

My cynical side tells me that the faculty will simply come up with another excuse why ROTC is innappropriate for the rarefied academic standards they uphold. But my hope is that with our nation embroiled in war and a time of deep need for the best and brightest to serve that the greater good and true traditions of the university step forward past the ridiculous radicalism of the Vietnam era.

My hope is the next letter published by the Dean will be calling for the end to the exclusion of ROTC and a return to the grand tradition of military service that Harvard has supported since its founding in 1636.

Frederick Wellman '07
Presidential Scholar/Public Service Fellow
Center for Public Leadership Fellow
Lucius N. Littauer Fellow

Posted via email from FPWellman Blog

Social Media Marketing...Marketing

2010-05-24T22:48:00.001-04:00

The more I delve into the world of social media and leveraging it to tell the story for businesses, government agencies and non-profits the more I learn about how it is not a stand alone effort. Social media needs to be part of a strategic effort to communicate your story and key to that is not forgetting to market in "the real world". Consistently I am seeing organizations scratching their heads after they roll out channels with great fanfare and engaging content yet no one shows up. Unlike mythical baseball fields, just building it won't make them come in social media.

Here are some common sense simple tips to take your efforts beyond the dream of viral connections and get more attention for your efforts:

1. Ensure your name is consistent. As you set up your channels make every effort to secure a consistent naming convention across every site. It will make it thousands of times easier to find your outlets when the name is the same across all of them and real gold is struck when it also matches your main website URL. Its not always easy to do this when you are picking up a campaign after everything has been established but where possible consistency is best.

2. Publish the site addresses in every thing you put out. Social media needs to be part of a convergent multi-platform communications strategy. To accomplish that goal ensure you push the various channels and their individual addresses in all of your marketing materials and publications including print ads, magazines, company brochures, email signature blocks, business cards, post cards and, of course, links prominently displayed on your main web page to name just a few.

3. Shout out loud. Many military bases, businesses and non-profits have billboards and marquees located at key locations. Be sure to add your social networking addresses there and invite people to follow you. I knew it was a new day when one of the smallest little churches near our house in rural Virginia asked us for weeks "Do you tweet? Join us at...." Old school religion meets new school marketing.

4. Just ask. When I took a class in political campaigning I learned one of the biggest mistakes many politicians make is failing to ask for peoples votes. Human psychology leads us to be more likely to do something when we are asked nicely to do it. Social media is no different. Ask people to follow you. Ask them to invite their friends to follow you. Ask them to comment on your stories and re-tweet your updates. Ask them to post their pictures and videos. Study after study is showing that when you ask people to do something the results are exponentially better. (Oh, but as the picture shows, make sure you spell things right. Photo courtesy of dailydesigndiscoveries.com)

None of these ideas will guarantee hundreds of fans and followers. Engaging content, understanding of the etiquette of the net and good business practices are still the solid foundation of building successful social media efforts but all of those are moot if no one even knows you have channels out there. One of the lessons of successful social media marketing is doing actual marketing of your social media.

(Originally posted on the JANSON Blog http://www.jansoncom.com/blog/2010/05/social-media-marketing-marketing/ )

Posted via email from FPWellman Blog

Old School Government 2.0 at Virginia DMV

2010-04-07T11:35:00.001-04:00

I just had the most shocking experience. I went to the Virginia Department of Motor Vehicles office in Stafford County and had an incredibly good, efficient and speedy time getting my new drivers license. It reminded me that with all of this talk of government 2.0, transparency and making government more open that the average citizen doesn't care about any of that.

The average citizen wants to get what he needs from his government fast and without any hassle. In the end, good government still starts at the tax office, DMV, police cruiser and 911 center cause that's where most citizens meet their government the most. We can't forget that in our rush to transform government it needs to start with the average customer.

My experience today showed it all so clearly. I started by going to the DMV Now site where I found the forms I would need to fill out as a recently retired military officer with an out of state license. Another form told me what documents I would need to bring along to get approved. They have just added a step-by-step walk through, with videos, of how the process at DMV works so there is no doubt what you must do.

I drove up to the office and found exactly what the site expected. The lady at the info desk was friendly and complimented me on doing my homework before coming up. I was issued a number and given a clipboard and pen to fill out my forms. The electronic system for tracking customers was working perfectly and within 10 minutes I was at a window with a nice lady who was able to type furiously while carrying on a pleasant conversation about the high pollen count.

Signed some forms, got my picture taken (disappointed she was unable to make me look thinner but its all good) and I was on my merry way in under 10 minutes with everything done, my temporary license in my pocket and cheerful farewells from the info lady and security guard.

Guess what? I have maybe dealt with the Virginia state government three times in the three years I have lived here and I think they are a darn fine government right now. After 26 years in various uniforms I have dealt with a lot of DMV offices and no one came close to being as efficient and squared away as the one I hit today.

As I drove home it hit me. All this talk about Government 2.0, data mashups, open gov...etc. Its all good but for the average person they really don't give a flip about it. They will never touch an application for data mashup that tells them where water chlorine counts are mixed with fluoridation levels and layered on top of nitrogen counts in the tree samples. They just want their license without having to take an entire day off of work only to find out they didn't bring the right form.

Its important that those of us who obsess about these new tools and databases remember that in the end good government is still a ground game first. If we want happy citizens we need to start where the rubber meets the road with good customer service and smiling faces in tough situations.

Posted via email from FPWellman's on the go blog

Government Social Media Strategy: From Kit Kat to Don't Ask Don't Tell

2010-04-01T13:35:00.001-04:00

If you follow the social media and PR news cycle you have probably heard by now about the mess Nestle’ has found itself in on its Facebook page while dealing with a coordinated campaign by Greenpeace against its use of palm oil in its products. There is already a host of blog posts and articles being churned out on this latest case study for the social media guru’s to pour over and draw lessons from though most focus on a consensus that Nestle’ failed in its outreach through poor etiquette and being unprepared.

While those are valid points more telling is the lessons that government agencies should be drawing from this episode and what it means for them as an ever increasing number of government organizations are turning to social media as a powerful and accessible tool for outreach to the public. The question government communicators and cybersecurity managers should be asking is not if they will be attacked as Nestle’ was but when it will happen and how they will manage it?

There is a lot to be said about how Nestle’s community manager might have handled this differently but I think there are separate lessons for government communicators to draw from this event:

Lesson #1: This could happen to you

It is a matter of time before groups decide to launch a similar campaign against a government Facebook page by high jacking the wall with a concentrated and sustained series of posts and harassing comments. Our recent Military Facebook Study showed that with well over a thousand pages in use for military organizations alone, and many poorly managed at best, the gap to be exploited is huge. The spark could be anti-war protestors or those opposed to the Don’t Ask Don’t Tell policy against DoD or the way the FCC handles internet regulations. Whatever the cause it is fairly easy to organize a blitz online.

Lesson #2: Monitor your Facebook page for what fans are saying

Are you monitoring your page and what the fans are saying really? Our study showed that the overwhelming number of Facebook page administrators are ignoring completely the fan posts on their page and have no idea what is going on when the page is segmented between owner posts and fan posts. It wouldn’t be surprising that the first inkling of a problem came from an item posted on Wired.com or Mashable before some organizations even realized they were under attack. It is more important than ever that official Facebook pages are carefully monitored for inappropriate content and posts.

Lesson #3: Have a plan to deal with a coordinated social media attack

What is your plan to deal with this kind of attack or any kind of crisis surrounding your social media outlets? What is the procedure for notification of the organization’s leadership? How will your community manager respond? Do you have clear terms of use posted that give you the leeway to say “This comment is in violation of our posted terms of use and has been deleted” so you can avoid being accused of censorship? Do you have advocates you can reach out to for help in defending your organizations reputation? Who is the approval authority to launch your response plan? Just like you have a plan to deal with a fire in your building you must have a plan to deal with a virtual fire on your social media outlets.

Bottom line: It’s too late to plan once the crisis starts

The growth of social media as a valuable communications channel for government and industry to tell their story is also tied to a growth in online activism which will lead to inevitable clashes between the two efforts. Successful organizations need to recognize this dynamic and have effective plans in place to deal with the time when their turn is up to become the next big social media case study. Will it be a tale of success or an object of scorn? Like all successful communications efforts the answer lies in an effective strategy and plan long before the crisis occurs.

Posted originally at the JANSON Blog http://bit.ly/bzhquV

Posted via email from FPWellman's on the go blog

DoD Publishes a Common Sense Approach to Social Media

2010-02-27T00:58:00.002-05:00

The long awaited Department of Defense Social Media policy was
announced with much fanfare today and it is an incredibly well thought
out common sense approach that has public affairs officers world wide
rejoicing. It has been a long time coming for the evangelists of new
media in the ranks who have been battling for access or trying to find
allies to help them push into social media but this policy was worth
the wait.

I have been one of those evangelists myself for the last three years
after the terrific team at the Army Web Team sold me hook, line and
sinker on their efforts to tell the Army story on YouTube, Flickr and
iReports. Eventually, their efforts grew to include Facebook,
Twitter, Delicious and a host of other platforms but on any given day
we would come to work and find our access cut off causing our IT
department to spend the day furiously fighting to get us turned back
on.

When Price Floyd, Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for
Public Affairs, rolled out DTM 09-026 today signed by the Secretary of
Defense it solved the agony of hundreds of communications
professionals in all of the services around the world.

Its simplicity belies the power of the directive. It states that the
"NIPRNET (the unclassified network) shall be configured to provide
access to Internet-based capabilities across all DoD Components."

With that single sentence the Marines are no longer blocked from
social media sites which single-handedly killed all of their social
media based outreach efforts last September. Army PAO's will no longer
have to find the latest version of the DISA memo to submit with their
specific IP addresses and configurations for each and every social
media page they wanted to use for official purposes. Memo's that were
routinely lost or arbitrarily denied.

Hopefully now a fuller regulation will follow and field manual's that
lay out the best practices and tactics, techniques and procedures that
so many professionals have been learning through trial and error. My
company is just finishing a study of military Facebook pages that
shows the immense need for standardized content practices and rules as
a staggering number of pages have little or no contact information,
terms of use or clear identification as official pages anywhere to be
found.

Congratulations to my former colleagues and our many military clients
as they are now free to pursue all of the different channels available
to tell their story to the American people, build stronger military
communities, recruit future service members and connect with world.

Posted via email from FPWellman's on the go blog

Xbox and a larger worldview

2010-02-14T11:12:00.002-05:00

My 12-year-old son came to my wife and me with an odd problem to deal
with yesterday. He needed help figuring out how to solve a challenge
on his Xbox Live. Not how to beat a level or get an upgrade. No, the
problem was he and his online friends were trying to coordinate a
two-hour session of Halo 3 as a team but we're in Virginia, one guy
was in Kansas and the other guy was in....Singapore. What's a common time

for them?

If you ever wondered if this newest generation has a larger worldview
than many of us did as children you need only look to that
conversation. I am pretty sure that at 12 I wasn't worried about
coordinating entertainment events across multiple time zones but this
is a world he is comfortable with like its an everyday issue.

If you listen to his games the discussions are startling in their
banality as they talk about the differences in their schools while
defending against a tide of Flood or laugh about each others accents
while coordinating the take down of a rampaging squad of "angry
Brutes". He is learning tips and techniques regularly from a kid in
Spain.

I grew up in a small suburb of St. Louis, Missouri in the 70's and
80's. The idea of Singapore was an exotic far away place and I don't
remember meeting any kids of Asian descent even until reaching middle
school. Yet my children are spending their time developing a
substantially larger world view via a trivial video game.

Imagine what kind of business men and women or diplomats they will
make some day as they tackle a world that seems much smaller than the
one I imagined as a child. The comfort they have with global
conference calls and multi-cultural challenges can't help but make it
that much easier when it comes to tackle larger issues.

I know a lot of my parent friends are freaked out by all the time
their kids spend playing video games and the scary strangers they meet
online. We don't share that fear. We are raising good kids and we
monitor what they are doing closely and all I am seeing is a set of
kids who move in a world I could only dream of at their age. I never
thought a simple thing like Xbox Live would link my kids to such a
larger world.

Of course, there are some dangers. When I was in Iraq the second time
my wife wrote me to tell me about a stunning phone bill we had
received. As it turned out our then 14-year-old son had made friends
with a kid in Canada on Xbox Live. They were coordinating their games
via text messages. His world view didn't realize that Canada might be
a foreign country and international text messages were a lot more
expensive than domestic. Thank you to AT&T for getting rid of the
$700 bill for that one--with a laugh.

It led to a discussion of the fact that though Canada was just north
of us it really is a different country. I busted on him pretty hard
about it at the time but its really kind of funny in the larger sense.

A world without borders seems like a ridiculous idea politically to
most of us but in a cultural sense I think the next generations are
halfway there already.

I certainly understand it. I mean, hey, we have to unite against the
Covenant. That's just obvious.

Posted via email from FPWellman's on the go blog

Small businesses don't need talking points

2010-01-31T12:47:00.002-05:00

It seems everyone is a populist suddenly. We have to take on those
Wall Street fat cats and their bonuses. We are going to save the
"middle class" with child care credits and other nebulous magic
tricks. The fact is that this recession has taken a huge buzz saw to
American small businesses and the constipated lending system has not
improved enough to start moving things back in the right direction.

I briefly ran for mayor of Peachtree City, Georgia until 9/11 sent me
back into uniform. My passion then was small businesses and the fact
that 50% of U.S. jobs are created there. Today I am employed by a small
business and my passion is even greater. Real action needs to happen
or this "jobless recovery" will end up being another dip.

I caught this article online from the Denver Post
(http://www.denverpost.com/opinion/ci_14289805) that offers an in
depth look at what the numbers are telling us and they are
fascinating:

1) SBA guaranteed lending fell nationally by 27 percent from nearly
$18 billion to $13.1 billion.

2) In Colorado, the results were worse: SBA-guaranteed lending plunged
41 percent, from $556 million in fiscal year 2008 to $330 million in
fiscal year 2009

3) National Federation of Independent Business Small Business Optimism
index, which had hovered pretty steadily around the 100 range since
the end of the 1993 recession, plunged to the low 80s, well below
earlier recessions.

4) The December NFIB index remained stuck at 88, not nearly high
enough to trigger job growth.

5) Hiring plans "remain in negative territory," according to Wells
Fargo Economics, which reported on the NFIB index January 15.

This interesting paragraph showed the wide perception gap remaining:
"At a recent small-business summit hosted by Sen. Michael Bennet,
business owners described the perception gap between small businesses
and the financial sector. In an example of how the spiral of redlining
has gotten out of control, business owners said they were interested
in getting loans but perceived the banks as unwilling to lend. Lenders
said they were willing to make loans but perceived borrowers were shy
about taking on new risks."

Being a populist is always an easy place for politicians to run when
their numbers fall but the fact is that on Main Street folks need more
than rhetoric-- they need real action. We are all troubled by the
$700 billion in TARP to big banks that are now giving out monster
bonuses again so they can devise new ways to split dollars and clone
new ones. Nobody would care if small business owners weren't draining
their personal savings accounts to keep themselves going.

Its not a talking point issue or sales pitch problem. Its a real
action problem. Hopefully the leaders in DC will start listening
instead of pursuing agenda's that will drive up business costs in the
short term. Let's recover first.

Just my two cents.

Posted via email from FPWellman's on the go blog

Too Early for Haiti Monday Morning Quarterbacks

2010-01-16T20:46:00.003-05:00

I just finished reading a piece on the Daily Beast by Clive Irving
(http://www.thedailybeast.com/blogs-and-stories/2010-01-15/we-missed-the-moment/?cid=hp:beastoriginalsL2)
where his hypothesis is that we already blew it in Haiti because we
failed to get enough heavy equipment in within the first 36 hours to save those trapped in collapsed buildings. My conclusion from it is that the writer doesn't have a clue what he is talking about and the Daily
Beast will print any idiot who pens something for them.

Irving's expertise in this area it seems is based on having edited a book on
the Oklahoma City bombing. I won't dwell on the silliness of
comparing the bombing of a building in a major US city to an
earthquake in a sovereign island nation some 700 miles from our
territory because its just too stupid to believe.

What got me writing is that he laments in the piece that "You have to wonder whether two
wars have depleted and weakened our ability to provide humanitarian
relief with the same resources and energy devoted to the
battlefields." He is frustrated that because we are fighting our nations wars
our military is too busy to save people in natural disasters.

I have news for you Mr. Irving, fighting and winning our nations wars
is the military's primary mission. Nowhere in the Constitution or in
statute does it say be prepared to jet off to every country that has a
disaster and save everyone in less than 36 hours. We execute those
missions because it is the right thing to do and often the means to
execute those missions are within our existing training and equipment.

In the case of Haiti that means setting up air traffic services or
ferrying supplies in via helicopter or providing medical care. We are
not trained or equipped to examine collapsed buildings and rescue
those within. That is why the rescue teams from Fairfax, Virginia
were there. That is what they do. Period. To lament that somehow
the military is incompetent or sidetracked because we are fighting our
wars is ridiculous. I can only imagine a scenario where our country
or an ally was attacked and we were sidetracked by humanitarian
assistance missions and everyone would accuse them of not being
prepared for war. That would be inexcusable.

The simple fact is that no other organization on earth has the ability
to flex quickly and with the massive logistics and leadership needed
to act in a crisis than the United States armed forces. What they
are doing in Haiti is astounding for the fact that every single
service man and woman there was supposed to be doing something else 48
hours ago and now they are there. There is an airport because we are
there. There is help on the way because its riding the bow wave of
massive American ships and the cargo holds of massive American aircraft.

Without assets already on the ground it is impossible to save hardly
anyone in those buildings. It is estimated that over 50% of the
buildings in the city collapsed. It is heartbreaking but the best we
can do with this horror is take care of the survivors to prevent more
death. So, lets save the Monday morning quarterbacking until the game
is at least half way through and not in the opening quarter.

Of course, that's just my opinion. My experience is only based on
launching off to South Carolina after Hurricane Hugo to rescue trapped
civilians and fighting in two wars over four separate rotations.

I've never edited a book though.

Posted via email from Fred's posterous

Shooting and Blizzard Show the Power of Social Media in a Crisis

2010-01-02T09:43:00.002-05:00

Social media channels are powerful communication tools normally but
when incorporated into a crisis action plan they can add a valuable
weapon to government public affairs arsenal. Two recent events on
Army installations with starkly different results demonstrated this
clearly.

The reviews aren't close to being done on all the things that went
right or wrong during the events that unfolded at Ft. Hood on November
5th. One of the questions that will have to be asked is whether or
not the crisis communications plans were built to support all of the
many means to communicate info to the community during the shooting
and its aftermath.

A cursory review shows that many things did indeed go right for the
public affairs office that day but at first glance the use of social
media to inform the community was unfortunately not leveraged
effectively. A review of the official Facebook Fan page and Twitter
feeds shows that both went completely silent throughout the entire
event. Neither had any official posts until over 24 hours after the
shooting when they thanked everyone for their support and put out the
info where donations could be sent.

One of the great advantages of using social media tools to put out
info is the speed with which you can update them and ease of use.
Most government websites are not built for quick updating or ease of
management. A month and a half after the shooting another crisis
unfolded at an Army base that showed how social media could be used as
a powerful part of a public information plan.

Fort Belvoir, south of Washington DC, has a robust presence in social
media and when a blizzard struck the area just before Christmas they
took advantage of their Facebook and Twitter outlets to constantly put
out the latest info throughout the storm. In a three day period they
updated their feeds well over 120 times and used the outlets as a key
part of their crisis action response.

Mr. Don Carr, Director of Public Affairs, tells me that "most of what
we did is part of the PA (public affairs) annex to the installation's
adverse weather response plan. The SM sites are not specifically part
of the annex; we just did it. Our update to the annex will roll 'em
in."

Mr. Carr goes on to note what made the social media outlets especially
powerful "was the 'instant' feedback we got on FB and Twitter. As
residents or employees would post a comment about how things were, I
was able to cut-n-paste them into emails to the IOC (Installation
Operations Center), DPW (Department of Public Works) or the Housing
folks, so that priorities for plows and other work could be adjusted
accordingly."

The results speak for themselves as over 100 more people became fans
on Facebook and the overwhelming majority of comments were effusive in
their praise for the amount and timeliness of the information they
were getting from the comfort of their homes or portable devices.

Both cases show how with the growth in popularity of official
government social media channels incorporating them into your crisis
action plan is imperative and effective. The instant speed of
information distribution they offer are powerful tools in the
communications toolbox and an increasingly savvy public demands the
two way conversation.

Posted via email from Fred's posterous

Tactics without strategy is a path to failure

2009-12-16T17:03:00.001-05:00

I had a couple of great conversations this week with some incredibly smart folks including my boss and John Della Volpe (@dellavolpe) of Socialsphere and the Harvard Kennedy School's Institute of Politics about how social media fits into an organizations overall public relations strategy. I am more convinced than ever that too many organizations are cutting straight to social media as a solution without figuring out what they are trying to solve.

John posted a very good take on his blog ( http://www.socialsphere.com/blogs/36-johns-blog/352-daylights-burning.html ) that while 2009 has been the year of social media exploration he hopes that 2010 will be the year of social media strategy. I liked this post not just because he mentions me, which of course feeds my massive ego and innappropriately high self esteem, but because he cuts right to a regular theme I tell my colleagues and clients--Social media is a tool in the tool box and by jumping straight to the tool you are going straight to tactics without a strategy.

The start point isn't which platform you should be on or who should be tweeting. The start point for an organization or business has to be what is our goal? What is our mission? What are the messages that we want people to know about us and how do we spark the conversations that allow us to convey those ideas?

I always fall back on my military experience as I make these plans. The first thing you need to know as you begin planning a combat operation is what is the goal of the campaign? From that flows the knowledge to apply the right military units, tactics and weapons systems to the mission. Its no different in communications or marketing.

What is it we want to accomplish?

Once you have answered that key question you can start looking at the resources available and look at the menu of choices of platforms and tools to tell your story. Any organization that has a good story can excel with a good plan be it about an amazing non-profit like The Mission Continues (@missioncontinue) or the United States Army who recently launched a very cool iPhone app to bring news and useful information to a wider audience.

The old adage that we are too busy to plan is nothing more than a recipe for failure whether you are trying to seize a hill in combat or trying to roll out a cool new product.

Posted via email from Fred's posterous

Social media--cause they're already bad mouthing you

2009-12-08T00:02:00.001-05:00

I think one of the most compelling arguments to engage in the social media world for government public relations folks simply lies in being part of the conversation that is occurring already. This has always been obvious to me but it really came to mind while I attended the Department of Defense All Services Social Media Conference at the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars last week in DC.

At lunch one day I had a fascinating conversation with an exasperated government communicator working for one of the most controversial agencies in DoD. She can not convince her boss to embrace social media and especially the launch of a Facebook fan page primarily because he thinks people will be saying bad things about them.

I was reminded of my kids when they were toddlers and didn't want to hear me telling them to go to bed so they would plug their ears and close their eyes. It was as if by not hearing me yelling at them that somehow it wasn't happening.

Avoiding social media so you don't have to hear bad things about your organization is exactly the same.

My primary argument I thought she might use to convince her boss is that these conversations are happening anyway. Every day soldiers are sitting in HUMMV's or wives are attending Family Readiness Group meetings complaining now, they just don't have a place to share that conversation with the people who could possibly fix it.

In her case, by establishing a Facebook fan page they would be able to reach two of their primary client groups: stay-at-home mom's and younger single men who are represented in huge numbers on that site. By hosting an open candid conversation they could build a community and answer client concerns in a very public way.

You see, if you monitor your Facebook page for complaints you can then go in and reply to the concerned poster right on the site. By actively engaging your biggest critics and solving their issues not only do you have that one satisfied customer but you have reached potentially hundreds or thousands more with similar concerns for a tenth of the cost of a massive call center.

One of the great powers of social media in the Government 2.0 environment is creating value added customer interactions that a one-on-one engagement via phone or other means simply doesn't provide. Each positive outcome has an exponential potential to answer the needs of hundreds more than just the one person who started the conversation.

Government communicators, and businesses as well, have very simple tools right at their fingertips to reach countless more customers, clients and constituents now than we did just a few years ago. Adding social media outlets and listening posts to the menu of outreach tools like call centers, base websites and remote offices just makes sense when the potential exists to reduce the workload at those other outlets with substantially less costs.

By hiding from the things you know are already being said about you all you are doing is prolonging the frustration for both you and your customers. Just like my kids when they ignored my summons to bed time. They still went to bed, but we all ended up unhappy with the measures that had to be taken to make it happen.

Posted via email from Fred's posterous

The Virtual World is Flat

2009-11-18T23:36:00.003-05:00

The Army is probably about as stratified and hierarchical an organization as you will find where everyone has a place in the system from Private to General. That system has existed for literally thousands of years but I believe the social media revolution is creating a virtual flattening like never seen before where anyone with a good idea and social networks can see those ideas float to the very top in the blink of a tweet.

This idea struck me as I had the unique privilege to attend the recent Sweets and Tweets event co-hosted by Debbie Weil (@debbieweil) and Neighborhood America (@NBHD_America) featuring Dr. Mark Drapeau (@cheeky_geeky) Tuesday evening in Georgetown's Baked and Wired cafe. Mark's discussion centered on what he likes to call the two dirtiest words in Government 2.0--social networking.

He has engaged in a withering intellectual discussion on the topic with the good natured Chris Dorobek (@cdorobek) of Federal News Radio for a while now with Chris being of the mind that we should change the terminology to "collaboration" tools as a better descriptor with less of a leisurely sound.

I have weighed in a little on both sides of that argument but to me the real issue doesn't center on terminology but on the quiet growth of knowledge sharing and instant discussions that social media has allowed us in the military.

In every aspect of our business heated arguments and intellectual exchanges are occurring in numerous corners of the web. On the Small Wars Journal website (http://www.smallwarsjournal.com/) the brainiacs are arguing over COIN strategy while on individual Facebook pages public affairs officers are robustly arguing over how best to address breaking news stories...as they occur.

In the Army there are a growing group of big thinking public affairs professionals finding their voices through social media tools and online outlets to cut through the chain-of-command and share tips and techniques across the globe.

For example, out in Korea a brigade PAO named MAJ Mike Nicholson has built a terrific blog and social media package called 46Alpha (http://www.46alpha.com/ and @46alpha) where he shares the best practices he has learned on social media with a huge number of like minded professionals.

Up at the Defense Information School a young Staff Sergeant named Joshua Salmons is leading the internet-based capabilities work and being featured in briefings, e-seminars and was published just last month in Federal Computer Week magazine discussing Facebook fan pages for military organizations.

Up in the Office of the Chief of Pubic Affairs, MG Kevin Bergner has created the Online and Social Media Division under the able leadership of LTC (P) Kevin Arata and his team of civilians and great contractors are dreaming up new ways to tell the Army story every day.

These voices from the field are finding a platform and conduit to their peers and outside agencies all because of this "virtual flattening" of the Army like never before.

A whole aspect of the idea of Government 2.0 is the ability to share knowledge across silos using these sophisticated new tools while also sharing needed information with the public. My advice for my peers is that if you plug into this world you can have a voice in the discussion too.

You don't have to sit in the field anymore and say to your buddies "geez...if I could call somebody in DC I would tell them...."

Blog it--tweet it-- share it now and you will be a better communicator and thinker.

P.S. I've been quiet on the blogging front this last two weeks as I retired from the Army and am now working at JANSON Communications as the Senior Director of Communications, Public Relations and Social Media. Which means I get to think about this stuff full time now. Which is really cool.

The pain of adoring fans

2009-11-01T21:28:00.004-05:00

One of my guilty pleasures in life is "The Incredibles" from Disney/Pixar. There are so many great life lessons in there for adults as much as kids that I probably watch it more than my little ones do. As a public affairs professional I am constantly reminded of scenes from the movie in my daily work.

This weekend I was struck by the problem of "adoring" fans. If you have seen the movie you may recall that the downfall of Mr. Incredible started with his "Number 1 fan", Buddy, who was constantly getting under foot and creating havoc with his attempts to help out his hero.

The Republican National Committee learned the problem of having adoring fans on its Facebook fan page last week when it was widely reported on a number of blatantly racist and inappropriate fan postings on their page. The RNC took a ridiculous amount of time to notice the postings and remove them and opened itself up to charges of supporting the bizarre ramblings of just a few supporters.

Newsweek commented on the episode here: http://blog.newsweek.com/blogs/thegaggle/archive/2009/10/26/more-rnc-internet-follies-racist-images-on-fan-photo-page.aspx

As a government communicator I have always told my colleagues getting involved in social media efforts to make sure they have a person whose job is to scrub all of their communities to ensure that inappropriate posts aren't finding their way on to the pages when we aren't looking. I have teenagers so I know better than anyone that the really stupid things tend to show up at 1:00 in the morning and if you aren't checking at the crack of dawn somebody will find it before you do over their morning cup of coffee.

As I recently perused a number of official government Facebook pages I found a host of examples of misguided postings. One example, was on the page for the Navy's Chief-of-Naval-Operations where a number of fans are posting advertisements for things from easy loans to Tai Kwan Do studios and the posts are over a week old meaning whoever is managing the CNO's page is probably only looking at their side of the page and not the "Just Fans" wall.

The lesson learned for both public organizations and private businesses is that you have to know precisely what is being said on your pages. Even though its not coming from you, the world will see it as something you support through your silence and not policing your public face.

Facebook fan pages are very versatile and incredibly useful in building communities around your organization. But, they are also an opportunity for others to make money, embarrass you or take advantage of your poor management. You have to create a routine to carefully scrub your efforts on a daily basis or you will pay a price both publicly and within your organization. It will only take one bashing blog post or news article to set back all the "street cred" you have gained with reluctant leadership in support of your social media efforts.

A small problem with a fan that dealing with now might offend one person can grow into a huge problem later that ruins your reputation.

Don't forget that Buddy grew up to be Syndrome, Mr. Incredible's greatest nemesis.

That probably stretches the metaphor a little far but I just like that name...Syndrome. Its a cool evil guy name I think. Those Pixar guys are geniuses.

Embracing bad news

2009-10-25T22:36:00.010-04:00

One of the first lessons I learned as a public affairs officer in Iraq is that there are some reporters who are going to dig up things you really don't want the world to know about your organization. I quickly figured out that hiding under my desk with my fingers in my ears muttering "You don't see me...you don't see me" over and over didn't really make the situation any better.

There is really only one way to deal with a bad news story and that is to embrace the pain and dive in with both feet with the journalist or blogger as they are working the story to try and ensure that at least the right facts are published with your voice and then help your organization fix the problem they found.

The simple fact is that you can't claim to be "ahead" of a story once its been published.

A few years ago a hard working journalist at the New York Times had dug up some compelling evidence of problems with the testing of some of our equipment for our troops. The story hit the front page and the Army went into full response mode mobilizing a comprehensive plan to show the innacuracy of the story from interviews and demonstrations to rolling out troops to provide testimonials on how much they loved the stuff.

A few months later I sat at an Army public affairs symposium as two terrific senior leaders did a post-mortem break down of what many would deem a very successful crisis communications response exercise. I sat in the audience and was struck by some background I knew wasn't being mentioned.

I knew the journalist personally and had worked two stories with him that were potentially ugly. He was the kind of guy that didn't hide the fact of what he had on you and would ask for a ton of facts and information for the story before he went to press. So, I raised my hand and asked one question "Did you all know that he was working on this story?"

They did and had chosen to not work with him because they felt he was writing a negative story. So, they developed a response and waited for it to be published.

So, we failed to provide compelling evidence in our defense until after the first story was published. In this Web 2.0 day and age he who publishes first owns the conversation. In the blogoshphere and social media echo chamber by the time you are mobilizing a response the original story is global.

By not engaging as the story is being developed we are leaving ourselves out of the conversation entirely. You are guaranteed to look defensive and desperate trying to rebut something that is already out being twisted and re-tweeted all over the world.

The same journalist had called me in Iraq with plans to do an expose on one of our organizations "failures". I went into full fact gathering mode and by the time he arrived in Iraq we hit him hard and often with every number, brief or obscure fact he wanted. I remember being on speakerphone at 1 a.m. with the budget officer of my command going line-by-line through our numbers to make sure he got them right. We provided a comprehensive and well argued counter point to his basic thesis and ensured that when he went to print our voice would figure prominently in the piece--and it did.

The story hit the front page of the paper...and never went any further. We had provided a compelling argument in the original story that demonstrated that though we may have made mistakes, we had identified those failings ourselves and they were already fixed. We took the air out of those things that would have made it a story that bounces- No cover up. No excuses. No deception.

Was the story basically negative? Sure. But by embracing the pain of dealing with it honestly and up front it died with just one print run.

The lesson is a simple one. In this modern Web 2.0 world once a story is published its too late to try and put it back in the bag. If you aren't working up front to make sure the reporter gets it right you already lost the debate.

Caveman Theory and the balloon boy

2009-10-19T08:28:00.004-04:00

I had a conversation with some folks at my shop on Thursday afternoon as the great 'balloon boy' fiasco unfolded about why it was such compelling watching. We all kind of felt stupid about being sucked into such a strange story and the conversation made me realize just why it was such a powerful news story: Caveman Theory

This theory is something I came to create when the Army foolishly sent me to grad school a couple of years ago and I took a class with a smart guy named Mark McKinnon who ran media strategy for both of President Bush's and Senator McCain's campaigns. He made it clear that successfully reaching people involved telling a story and using the same theories of narrative that haven't changed since we all sat around fires with leftover mammoth meatloaf on rocks near the entrance of our caves.

My Caveman Theory is simple really, that all great narratives have the same basic parts that haven't changed in millenia. Whether it’s a great play, a compelling novel or a successful political campaign the building blocks are all the same:

1) Threat- You have to have a threat or an opportunity that has to be solved or defeated.
2) Victim- There has to be a victim of that threat or an opportunity.
3) Villain- Great stories have a villain who is threatening the victim.
4) Hero- You need the person or group who provides the resolution to the threat and saves the day for the victim—hopefully he has some panache while he does it.

Our young would be aviator's (or hoaxster's) story provides a compelling narrative when you look at its parts as it unfolded on the television and internet. The threat is pretty obvious in the danger posed by the unplanned flight across Colorado. Falcon seemed to be the victim of his own curiosity gone awry. The villain took the form of the wayward helium flying saucer monstrosity and our hero's were the brave police, rescue workers and National Guardsmen chasing the craft.

Now you sprinkle in a little fairy dust known as social media and you have the birth of a meme and major pop cultural news story with thousands following along via Twitter and Facebook. Every cable news outlet saw a dramatic rise in viewership and a rash of fail whales on Twitter showed the high following online.

A strong narrative is compelling to us as human beings and still the best way to communicate a message or persuade others no matter what venue the story is transmitted. Whether its a campfire in a cave, a Facebook wall post or a campaign ad narrative is essential.

I am constantly telling my fellow public affairs offiers and the journalists that have worked for me that that we have to tell a story instead of just present the dry facts and speeches that the military loves so much. Sure, the general wants to have an "event" like a ribbon cutting or big cardboard thing to sign but those aren't stories. They aren't compelling to watch at all so its no wonder they garner no news at all.

We need to find someone who was suffering until that ribbon was cut on the new family support center and how that new facility and its dedicated employees came to the rescue of this person in need. That's a story. Same subject...better approach.

Here is the example I always use when explaining my Caveman Theory to other folks and tell me which of these approaches is more engaging to you the reader?

This around the campfire:

"I, Chief Wannaeattoday, has led our great tribe as our powerful spears slayed the mighty mammoth bringing us food and power over all we see. Tonight we feast after our mighty warriors conquered the rampaging beast that was trampling our children at the river and now our families will sleep peacefully in safety and no one will dare challenge our tribe in all our lands."

Or this at a podium:

"Ladies and gentleman, I am pleased to introduce Chief John Wannaeattoday."

"Thank you for coming to our cave today. I asked you to come out as I am proud to announce the fielding of the new XM-1000 Superior Primary Environmental Advanced Response (SPEAR) Mammoth Slaying System that when fully fielded will greatly enhance our tribal forces ability to easily engage and reduce the giant hairy elephants in our area of operations and continue the overall ecosystem supremacy enjoyed today by our loincloth covered forces."

The Caveman Theory makes it clear a story with a narrative is a lot more interesting. That's why balloon boy was interesting and that's what we need to remember even in the wired social media world. Telling a story is what matters if we want folks to listen to what we have to say.

(A shorter version of this post was put up on my Posterous blog on Friday evening. I really recommend my fellow military communicators and milbloggers check out Posterous http://posterous.com/ as it is an email based system that posts automatically even uploading video and photos without any need to log in to the website once you set up your account. You don't need access to any bandwidth hogging or blocked sites to be able to keep your blog up to date. My posterous is http://fpwellman.posterous.com/ )

Military Facebook pages: Being there is not enough

2009-09-26T15:52:00.008-04:00

Today a growing number of military units and organizations have an official presence in social media and especially on Facebook. Unfortunately, it seems that most organizations just seem to think that being there is good enough. Their fan pages are nothing more than a place to push the same news releases and self congratulatory comments.

A perusal of many major organizational pages shows that administrators don't seem to have an idea how to truly build a community and leverage the power of social media and its ability to engage the public in ways unimaginable through traditional means. It truly seems that most military organizations are just happy to have finally built a page and that is the extent of the progress.

The last year has seen an explosion of organizations building outposts in the social media world and specifically a wave of Facebook fan pages. Some are having a measure of success in a large number of friends and followers who are linking to the pages.

A recent top 10 list by Federal Computer Week (http://bit.ly/2IbbUY) showed that the Marines come in number 2 with 83,000 fans and our Army page has over 49,000 fans. But with well over 300 million users on Facebook those numbers are quickly dwarfed as a measure of success. Even more so when you consider that the Chocolate Chip Cookies fan page weighs in with 1.46 million fans. (Dr. Mark Drapeau points out the fallacy of numbers of fans as a measure of success much better than I could in his excellent post http://radar.oreilly.com/2009/09/fallacious-celebrations-of-fac.html )

The entire US Army has well over 1 million members. Throw in another 6 million plus family members, civilian employees and retirees and it leads you to think that maybe we aren't providing something they would find useful or we would have a whole lot more signed up.

What would make the pages more engaging? Here are a few suggestions:

First, a recent study showed that the most popular thing people do on social networking sites is look at pictures. Military fan pages should be loaded with pictures not just from the official outlets but we should encourage our fans to load their own and show off their sons, daughters, brothers, sisters, husbands and wives for the world. It defies logic that the fan page for Multi-National Force-Iraq, the headquarters for well over 140,000 troops in combat, only has 12 photos posted. There are literally hundreds of photos being uploaded to official news channels weekly from theater, put the best on the fan pages. Same for videos.

You could fill dozens of albums with just photos of the incredible celebrities who take time to go and visit our troops all over the world. For example, Trace Adkins toured the combat zones just last year. By placing photos of his trip on the pages of the commands and tagging him in them you will link your site to his fan page with over 37,000 members. The power of social networking is...well...networking.

Second, Facebook is all about engaging and discussing. Just issuing the same old press releases and news articles about how great you are isn't engaging. Its boring. The true measure of this is how much people comment on the articles when you hang them. The average article posted by Multi-National Corps-Iraq gets at most 7 comments. People are not reading these posts and if they are, they are not "engaged" by them.

You have to have a conversation. Why not invite General Odierno to post something on the wall himself one day and have him take questions from anyone who comments on the page? How about grabbing a young soldier from the field and have him post pictures and wall comments on his day on patrol? Ask your fans for questions and then have a panel of experts from around the Corps chime in and answer the ones that relate to their area of expertise? Engage your fans and give them a reason to come to the page regularly and see what is going on.

Third, you can't treat a social media environment like the staid world of AP Style Guide proper English news articles. Its not that kind of an environment and the people we want to reach out to aren't interested in wonderful prose. Its a place where you can show your human side. One of my favorite regular sources of humor was the ongoing Chuck Norris facts postings in the form of sticky notes on bulletin boards all over the country. There is no reason MNF-I's page shouldn't have the top 100 Chuck Norris facts from soldiers in Iraq. Better yet--link it to the Chuck Norris Facts Group on Facebook which has over 150,000 members! Ask Chuck himself to post stuff on the page. He has visited Iraq more than once.

Finally, have a plan and put the right people in charge. Decide from the beginning what do you want to accomplish with your page and build the site to do just that. It doesn't have to be the full time job of a staff member to manage it but by the same token it shouldn't be your intern just cause "they are young and get this social media stuff".

Consider that the fastest growing demographic on Facebook today is 35-54 year old's and the number one users of social media today are mothers and you realize that just because its new doesn't mean its the responsibility of a kid to run it. Are you sure you want the public face of your organization to be an intern?

With just a little bit of extra work organizations can start leveraging their Facebook efforts to truly build an engaged community that networks and shares the stories of our service members and their families to the whole world.

I am often reminded of my years in the 101st Airborne Division planning air assault operations. We would spend hours going over every detail of every chalk of aircraft and the precise order and rotation of helicopters. Staff members would be exhausted figuring out all of the intricacies of the flight plans. After seven years of planning those ops I would constantly remind my team members that the whole point of an air assault wasn't getting there...but what happened when we arrived.

Its not good enough to get to the objective successfully then not know what the hell you are there for in the first place.

A hero honored

2009-09-18T15:19:00.004-04:00

Yesterday the President bestowed the Medal of Honor posthumously on Sergeant First Class Jared Monti for actions in Afghanistan. Its an incredible story and I won't try to tell it in my own words but use the words and video of my team here instead.

Monti was just a remarkable man and hero for our day. In the same week as the idiot "You lie!" and Kanye West "I'mma let you finish" fiascoes it was a pleasure to be a small part of recognizing a real leader instead of a feaux celebrity.

From Soldiers Radio and Television:

The Official Website:

http://downloads.army.mil/medalofhonor/monti/

'Soldiers' NCO' earns Medal of Honor for heroic deeds in Afghanistan
Sep 14, 2009

By Elizabeth M. Collins

WASHINGTON (Army News Service, Sept. 14, 2009) -- Ask anyone - family, friends, Soldiers - who knew Sgt. 1st Class Jared Monti of the 10th Mountain Division, and they'll tell you he was the best friend, best Soldier, best noncommissioned officer, best person they ever knew.

Model Soldier

"He set an example in every way, shape and form," said former Capt. Ross A. Berkoff, the unit's intelligence officer, explaining that Monti was known as the best NCO in the 3rd Squadron, 71st Cavalry Regiment (Recon), 3rd Brigade Combat Team.

"He was willing to stand up for his Soldiers," added now-Staff Sgt. Christopher J. Grzecki. "He didn't care what the guy above him thought of him as long as he knew that he was doing the right thing to take care of his guys."

Monti would have done anything for his Soldiers, so after the initial shock, no one was surprised that he sacrificed his life to save another Soldier during an intense firefight with Taliban insurgents in Afghanistan, June 21, 2006.

First for Afghanistan

He was posthumously promoted to sergeant first class the following day and will be the first Soldier awarded the Medal of Honor for Operation Enduring Freedom Thursday, when President Barack Obama presents the nation's highest honor to Monti's parents in a White House ceremony. Monti will also be honored in a Pentagon ceremony Friday.

Monti will actually be the second servicemember to receive the Medal of Honor for valor in Afghanistan as a Navy Seal, Lt. Michael Murphy, was posthumously presented the medal two years ago for his actions in a 2005 battle against Taliban fighters in the remote Hindu Kush mountains.

Monti earned the Medal when he and 15 other Soldiers became the first American servicemembers to ever set foot in the Gremen Valley, near the Pakistan border. Reports had showed insurgents were in the area, but not their exact location, their numbers or the types of weapons they had.

Kill Teams

Monti's patrol consisted of two six-man "Kill Teams" led by now-Sgt. 1st Class Christopher M. Cunningham and now-Staff Sgt. John Hawes, combinations of snipers and forward observers. Because the mission was dangerous, the teams were assigned several extra scouts, a medic and Monti. Although Monti had helped build the Kill Teams with his best men, he hadn't been out on a mission with them yet and the men were excited to work together.

They were on a reconnaissance mission to provide their command with information on the enemy before the 3rd BCT began a larger push into the region for Operation Gowardesh Thrust. They were supposed to stay hidden - not an easy feat for 16 men - and avoid engaging the enemy if possible; but Hawes said both he and several other Soldiers had gut feelings that something wasn't right.

Dropped off at a mortar-firing position near the Gowardesh Bridge on the evening of June 17, the Soldiers began a difficult climb up the mountain the next day. Moving mostly at night to avoid enemy detection, they climbed for three days before reaching their first observation point at a plateau 2,600 meters above sea level the evening of June 20, the night before the operation was scheduled to begin.

But unit commanders were forced to push the attack back at least 24 hours. Cunningham said they knew they had to push forward because of the danger of detection, but they needed more food and water.

A resupply was supposed to occur after dark, protecting their position, but Hawes was chagrined to see large white packages dropping less than 150 meters from them in broad daylight. When some of the men returned with the supplies, it was to see a man watching them with military-grade binoculars - unusual for the average Afghan villager.

Overwhelming firepower

A couple of hours later as dusk was falling and Monti, Cunningham and Hawes were discussing their options, a rocket-propelled grenade flew over their heads and they were overwhelmed by a stunning amount of firepower. Some of the Soldiers' rifles were shot out of their hands while others couldn't even reach their weapons. Monti got on the radio to call in indirect fire and air support, and Hawes remembered the Soldiers taking cover behind a few boulders and passing weapons back and forth to take the best shots.

Cunningham soon realized Pfc. Brian J. Bradbury was missing. He was injured and laying about 20 meters away in a slight depression. Cunningham was closer and offered to get him, but Monti refused, saying Bradbury was his Soldier.

He handed his radio to Sgt. Chris J. Grzecki and said, "You are now Chaos three-five," his call sign, and ran toward Bradbury. The wood line erupted with intense fire aimed at Monti. He made it a few meters before he was pushed back behind a small stone wall where another Soldier lay dead. He ran out again, was pushed behind the wall again and then ran into fire a third time.

Running into fire

"Monti ran straight for Bradbury as we all provided covering fire," Hawes wrote to Monti's mother Janet. "I remember seeing Monti running and I was firing...as close as I dared.... Just as he was about to reach Bradbury, I ran out of ammo and as I dropped behind the rock to change magazines...I heard an RPG...explode. Monti's scream that he had been hit followed shortly after." Monti said he made his peace with God and asked someone to tell his parents he loved them before falling silent.

"It's not surprising in any way," said Cunningham. "I know he knew what he was going up against to help out his Soldier. I know he knew the consequences.... Ultimately, he knew he needed to get his guy."

Air support came a few minutes later and they finally pushed the insurgents back as darkness fell. The Soldiers spent an anxious night and after helicopters arrived to evacuate the dead the next morning, the patrol high-tailed it down the mountain.

An unwanted honor

Medals were the last thing on Cunningham and Hawes' minds (both men were later awarded Silver Stars and Grzecki and other Soldiers received the Bronze Star with Valor or the Army Commendation Medal with Valor), but when their commander said he was putting Monti in for the Medal of Honor, both men knew he deserved it.

And when the award finally came through and the president called Monti's father Paul, he called Cunningham with the overwhelming, bittersweet news.

"I have a tremendous feeling of pride," Paul Monti said. "But I still can't get over not having my son. I would give all of this up, all of it, everything, just to have him back, just to be able to hug him one more time."

Monti's family and friends agree that the award would have been the last thing he wanted. Monti was humble to a fault and most of his family didn't know he had received two Bronze Stars and a Purple Heart on a previous deployment until his funeral because he believed each award represented the death of someone's son, father or husband.

"It's nothing you want," Hawes explained. "When you start getting into that level of award, especially the Silver Star and higher, it's sounds cool when you read about it in a book, but when you realize what it takes to earn it ... it really has to hit the fan and friends and stuff die, and that's not worth anything."

He would have wanted the medal to go to his men, Monti's mother said.

"To him it would represent every single Soldier, Marine, Sailor, whoever, whether they're still in Afghanistan or Iraq or home; whether they came home alive or in a casket; came home spiritually, emotionally or physically wounded.... This (award) is for all of them," Janet Monti said.

Living on through his men

Monti taught Hawes and Grzecki how to be NCOs and take care of their men, and Cunningham explained that he had the "luxury" of working with Monti's men. They loved him so much and emulated him to the extent that Cunningham felt like he was still working with Monti.

Hawes is now stationed at Fort Jackson, S.C., and has shared Monti's story with his holdover recruits, inspiring several to stay in the Army, so Monti's values, the Army values, continue on today.

Trust squandered for a photo

2009-09-09T11:18:00.005-04:00

I learned long ago the old saying that where you stand on an issue relates directly to where you sit. I am an Army officer with 4 combat tours and now serve as a public affairs officer. A big part of the job of a PAO is to serve as the liaison between the media and our military units. With that perspective the AP decision to publish the photo of the dying Marine last week was a foolish mistake with second and third order effects that won’t be seen in Washington or the Pulitzer Prize committee room. They will be seen in the fields, pomegranate groves and villages of Afghanistan and Iraq where life and death decisions are made daily and mutual trust is the most precious commodity.

For those unfamiliar with the issue, last week the AP decided to publish a package of photos out of Afghanistan including one of a young Marine named Joshua Bernard as he lay dying after being hit by an RPG while on patrol. Embedded with his patrol were two journalists from the AP including a photographer named Julie Jacobson who shot the photo not knowing at the time that the young Lance Corporal would later die in surgery.

There has been a bit of a firestorm on the net since last Friday about the decision that went into pushing the photo and accompanying stories out for papers and websites to run at their discretion even after impassioned pleas from the Marine’s family and Secretary of Defense Gates. Many journalists, including the ombudsman for Stars and Stripes and the publisher of Editor and Publisher saw the photo as an honest part of our wars that are being hidden from public view and thus a “courageous decision” was made to publish them.

On the military side passions have been high seeing the whole episode as a betrayal of our service men and women and their families. To make matters worse, the photo is being used by anti-war activists and even jihadist websites to trumpet the failure of our mission and in many cases celebrate the death of one of our own. Yet another one of those pesky second and third order effects I mentioned above.

We PAO’s are the ones that handle the processing and embedding of journalists in military units and from that perspective I have found the whole affair a foolish mistake for short term gain. It was a decision made without care for what it means for service men and women in the field or the journalists that accompany them on incredibly dangerous missions.

Taking an embedded journalist out into the fight is not a small thing. Military units are built on mutual trust, training, cohesion and in most cases, a sort of sixth sense for your buddies needs and actions. When a journalist is thrust into the middle of that mix it places the unit and the journalist at risk. The entire balance of the unit has to be adjusted to ensure the safety of everyone and the best field journalists understand that dynamic. They understand that their life is in the hands of those soldiers and Marines and also understand that trust has to be gained quickly and not squandered easily.

As you read Ms. Jacobson’s own journalist’s diary you can see how this trust and support plays out. Even as they are taking fire and tending their wounded she is constantly checked on by the Marines. They are fighting off the enemy and trying to get her to the safety of the MRAP at the same time. Instead of worrying about their own lives they are risking themselves for her and her colleague because that’s what we do.

When a journalist is embedded they sign an embed agreement which states: “Casualties may be covered by embedded media as long as the service member's identity and unit identification is protected from disclosure until OASD-PA has officially released the name. Photography from a respectful distance or from angles at which a casualty cannot be identified is permissible; however, no recording of ramp ceremonies or remains transfers is permitted."

Ms. Jacobson acknowledges that publishing her photos clearly showing Bernard and identifying him violated that agreement but waves it off with the caveat that the photo was too “newsworthy” to not publish. The battalion of lawyers at the AP also signed off having decided that since the young man had been already buried and the family notified that they weren’t violating any agreements. Perhaps by the letter of the law they are right but in the dusty streets of Afghanistan they are both wrong.

Now, when I ask a unit to take on the risk of a journalist embed it is with the caveat, the little asterisk next to their signature if you will, that says “I will not violate this basic agreement unless something newsworthy happens.” Now, Marines and soldiers will have to wonder if that reporter behind them in line can be trusted to do the right thing for them and their family or will their face become the face of jihadi success or anti-war triumph? Will my parents have to watch me die over and over again in the name of “newsworthiness”?

I know some incredibly talented journalists who have seen more combat action than I will ever see in a lifetime and they get this. They understand that this decision made by the management of the AP will now put them and the soldiers and Marines they work with at risk. They understand that now that young Marine is looking over his shoulder not just to check on them but to make sure they won’t be the next symbol of newsworthiness.

Trust is easily squandered and difficult to rebuild. The family’s wishes and DoD’s passionate requests should have been honored instead of ignored with legal arguments. AP president, Tom Curley needs to go back out to the field and see what it feels like to have someone risk their life for his and then maybe he will understand the anger so many of my fellow service members feel about this issue.

FINAL NOTE: As I finished writing this post it was announced a British Commando lost his life rescuing a kidnapped journalist this morning. This military business is about life and death not newsworthy or prize winning.

Thoughts on the rating of journalists

2009-09-05T09:47:00.003-04:00

If you follow military news you probably heard the dust up last week when Stars and Stripes revealed that US Forces Afghanistan had contracted the Rendon Group, a Washington based P.R. firm, to perform media analysis functions that included reviewing journalists past work and measuring it as positive, negative or neutral. These reports were then used by the military commands to prepare for an embed or interview and, it seems in some rare cases, to actually deny an embed for some journalists.

Needless to say these "shocking" revelations caused a stir in certain circles including among those of us in the military public affairs world. Personally, I found two troubling aspects surrounding the whole affair. First, why is a DoD funded publication, though ostensibly independent but staffed by military civilians and servicemembers, exposing confidential reports and using anonymous sources to embarrass a military command? Second, the reports themselves were just following current public affairs standard operating procedures when measuring the journalists but no one was defending them. It wasn't the contractor that was flawed but the process is in itself deeply flawed and leads to major issues of distrust and spin. I will leave the first issue for another day but the second is one that I have dealt with for years.

I came into this public affairs business formally rather late in my professional career. After playing at media relations for much of my first Iraq tour in my role conducting civil affairs for my unit I was sent to the public affairs officers course in 2004. They tought us in the course a simple technique for media analysis that seemed like no big deal. You read the story and subjectively decide if it is a positive, negative or neutral story.

In most military commands at the time this was the big contribution the PAO made to the daily staff briefs to the commander. A slide would go up and some hapless officer would stand up to say how many stories had been done on the command or a particular topic and how many fell into those three categories. It was obvious that the PAO needed to work hard to keep the positives higher than the negatives as a measure of success or failure.

I am a common sense guy and I was immediately struck by some simple facts. Bad things happen. How can you hold the PAO responsible for making sure bad things weren't reported or that good things were reported more without placing him in the position of becoming a "spinmeister". I couldn't match that against our stated mission of information to the public, fast, accurate and honest.

I took this troubling disconnect with me to my first two assignments until I was assigned as the public affairs officer for then Lieutenant General David Petraeus in Baghdad. The first day I walked into his office for my welcome chat he told me that he didn't want to see me slapping up any slides rating stories or journalists as positive, negative or neutral. All he cared about was whether the stories were accurate, innaccurate or false. As he put it very clearly--if a Blackhawk crashes down in front of a journalist its going to be a negative story. No amount of spin is going to change that so its a waste of time to measure it. What mattered was did they get it right?

With that simple guidance it was clear to me finally why I had been troubled by the dissonance. By measuring whether stories fell in those three nebulous categories it would lead inevitably to saying whether a journalist themself or their organization was positive, negative or neutral. We find ourselves going down a slippery slope of measuring whether a reporter is "our friend or our enemy" and that is a slope that leads to a whole host of problems always.

I was fortunate to have a colleague send me an old copy of a Rendon report. Its actually pretty tame and does precisely what I was tought in school. It looked at the journalists past reports and broke them out among those categories. There was no discussion of accuracy to any great extent at all. That break down meant that the report I saw didn't match hardly at all my personal knowledge of the journalists it discussed. I had found them to be very caring journalists who always tried to get it right.

The solution is simple. We must change the way we are training our public affairs professionals and rid our lexicon of the rating of journalists as positive or not. In the hands of unprofessionals what seems like a simple break down of stories into understandable categories becomes a tool of retribution, false measurements of success and a way to propagandize instead of telling the truth always.

The only thing we should care about when working with a journalist is does he get it right or wrong? Is he willing to listen to all sides of the story and give us a fair shake at telling our view? When applying the standard of accuracy I found myself much better prepared to speak with journalists.

If a story came out that was inaccurate I contacted the journalist and invited them over for a visit and to get our side of the issue. I gave them my contact info and the promise that I slept with my cell phones and was available 24/7 to answer any question to the best of my knowledge no matter their deadline. This built a professional trust that I treasure to this day with even journalists that some of my peers had a hard time working with.

If a story came out that was false we directly asked for a correction of the story and if the journalist refused to acknowledge the errors we worked our way up the chain. That happened so rarely I can't even remember a single time that a journalist didn't correct the record when an error was pointed out. I have found that most journalists are truly trying to get it right most of the time though some of the stuff they report may hurt those of us in the spotlight.

I often think of Dana Priest of the Washington Post and her now famous reports on Building 18 at Walter Reed in 2007. Many of my peers were infuriated by those stories and the embarrassment it caused and backlash we are dealing with even now. I always ask the same question when it comes up--"Was she right?" The facts are pretty clear that however she got the info it was dead on accurate. There were holes in ceilings, moldy walls, flooded bathrooms and a host of inexcusable conditions at the facility.

Was it negative? You bet it was. Was it accurate? You bet it was. I saw Dana at a symposium not long after the stories came out and she approached me very carefully. We had worked on a number of stories together during my time in Iraq. She asked me if I was mad at her too? My jaw hit the ground. How could I be mad at her? Her reporting exposed a great wrong and through that it had forced us to take a hard look at how we were taking care of our soldiers. I am not embarrassed to admit I thanked her for taking care of those men and women better than we had.

The facts of this military business means we are going to sometimes make mistakes. Our soldiers are going to say and, sadly sometimes, do stupid awful things. We are going to overlook important things and the role of the media is to call us out and report it honestly.

I think its time we stopped creating a slippery slope to fall down by rating journalists on how well they report our spin and instead focus on getting the stories told honestly. This change will build trust so when we do sit down with those journalists they will be willing to listen to my "good news" and not default to thinking I am spinning them.

Accurate, inaccurate or false is the professional way to understand our abilities as communicators. As a great Army we should have confidence that the preponderance of our work is positive and leave that judgement to history instead of the whims of the 24 hour news cycle.

Customers vs. Clients

2009-07-18T10:55:00.005-04:00

I have struggled since becoming a military public affairs officer to figure out how to balance the ideas and requests I am given from senior officers against what I believe to be the right mission or message of the command I represent. I have found that this relationship between being a good Army communicator against being a good Army officer is the trickiest balancing act I have had to deal with in my 22 years of service.

This week I finally figured out that it comes down to a philosophy of military public affairs as being in customer service vs. client support.

Last week some of my colleagues were told that we are in the customer service business so we shouldn't say 'no' to our "customer" generally. I think on the face of it that makes sense but it gets to the root of the issue. In customer service the customer is always right. In our line of work that is not always the case.

Many of my colleagues have a simple vision. The boss wants it so just go with it and do what he wants. After all you can't say 'no' to a customer. I have also seen more than a couple of my colleagues who follow that philosophy do some really stupid things that ended up blowing up in their faces leading to embarrassment for their commands and found themselves fired.

Who can forget the young Marine public affairs officer who went on CNN in October, 2004 to announce the re-taking of Fallujah had begun...when it hadn't? He was told to do it by his boss, his customer, so he did it. It ended up making him look like a liar. Did the Colonel get in trouble or the young officer who got in front of the camera? In the end, the entire military was painted with a broad brush as being liars from just that one incident.

On a daily basis there are much smaller battles. For example, when I was in Baghdad last, a general I have a lot of respect for got the idea we should throw a major media event at one of the Iraqi facilities to demonstrate the new tactical radios being installed in their HUMMV's. They had reached the 300 installed milestone and he wanted TV crews to come out and see a demo.

Now, the first question you have to ask for TV coverage is what is the visual? Radios in a truck are not visual. The next thing I thought of was how it would play to the average viewer. To us with our heads down grinding away getting 300 vehicles with radios so they could talk to each other finally was a big deal.

But is it in the big picture?

I asked how many vehicles the Iraqis had total? Turns out that at that point there were some 6000 plus vehicles...most without radios at all.

So, though it sounded huge to us I knew that any journalist worth his salt would ask me the moment we arrived "So, how many Iraqi vehicles need these radios and how long will it take?" It would make for a really silly moment when I explained how we had triumphantly reached the almost 5% mark and we would easily reach 15% by next year!

You see, its not about milestones all the time, you also have to consider context. In the context of the larger need of the Iraqi Army, 300 radios wasn't news. Needless to say the good general wasn't a big fan of me after that conversation.

I see my job as serving a client or really several clients at once. I have the boss or higher headquarters, the larger U.S. military and even more importantly the U.S. general public all as clients. I learned during my time out of the Army as a consultant that in client relations you sometimes have to tell a client he is dead wrong and help him find the right answer. That's why he hired you from the outside.

I owe all of my clients an honest assessment of a story and answers to questions they care about. Sometimes that means being in the very uncomfortable position of constructing a strong argument to someone extremely senior that their great idea is a really horrible thing to do.

Perhaps that's why there are exactly zero Army public affairs officers who have made general in well over half a dozen years at least.

Being honest in our line of work sometimes makes you a bad officer but the most important thing is that it makes you a great client manager. Hopefully you can have bosses like I have had every now and then who appreciate being told "no" sometimes.
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Real patriots

2009-07-02T10:46:00.002-04:00

I really try not to be a political blogger. I see myself as a professional soldier first and foremost. When in uniform I serve the nation, the Constitution and the Commander-in-Chief...whomever that might be. To be candid I have only voted for a President once in my entire career while on Active Duty. I have always just felt my duty is to serve and to try and stay out of politics while in uniform.

This work has allowed me to have the fortune to be the fly on the wall at some remarkable moments so many times over the years. In 2004 I had the unique experience of being tasked to provide escort to "the support staff" when President Bush came to visit Ft. Campbell. No one could tell me who that was so I found myself sitting in a van behind Air Force One anxiously awaiting my charges.

As soon as the steps hit the plane a staffer in a suit came bolting down the ramp towards my vehicle and jumped in. He seemed like a likeable guy so I introduced myself and took the liberty to ask who the hell exactly is "the support staff"?

He said, "Well, that would be the doctor, the spokesman, the photographers and myself. I am the 'jefe' of support if you will."

I replied "cool....and who are you?"

"I'm senior political advisor, Karl Rove."

To which I actually said...out loud..."Oh shit! I know you!" Then turned bright red when I realized that wasn't inside my head.

Rove busted out laughing and stuck out his hand saying he was glad I knew who he was and that he thought we were going to have a fun day with that start. It ended up being just that. As a newly dubbed spokesman it was a fascinating experience to hang out with him and Scott McClellan all day.

Near the end of the day we stopped at the post museum where about a dozen families of soldiers we lost in Iraq and Afghanistan waited for the President and Mrs. Bush. They spent over an hour and a half walking to each individual family who were spaced out throughout the building. No staff were allowed except a photographer and one runner. We all waited in the June humidity as the visit went blowing right through the scheduled time.

The photographers took turns rotating in and out. When I asked one why, he told me that it was too emotional for them to go right through and concentrate on capturing the moment for the families. They would take as much as they could then take a break. The President did them all. He and Mrs. Bush came out red eyed and visibly exhausted at the end.

I was reminded of that day when I found an article written by Rove today for the Wall Street Journal. He talks about an amazing family, the Krissoff's, who are dedicated to this country in ways I can't imagine. They lost one son in the Marines and when the second one went off to serve the father, a 61-year-old orthopedic surgeon, asked President Bush to grant him an age waiver to join the Reserves and now he too is in combat.

My career in the Army is drawing to a close after 22 years but it makes me very proud to wear the uniform when I hear of families like this one who give so very much to this nation.

A Family's Valor, a Nation's Freedom

Why would a 61-year-old civilian surgeon volunteer for Iraq?
By Karl Rove (From the Wall Street Journal)

At a dinner last week in California, I was reminded of the debt we owe to those who have, for 233 years, sustained our freedom and independence. One remarkable family in particular exemplifies the best in the American spirit of courage and sacrifice.

Sitting at my table was a friend, Christine Krissoff, wife of Dr. Bill Krissoff and mother of Nathan and Austin Krissoff. One of her sons, Marine First Lt. Nathan Krissoff, was killed in Al Anbar Province in December 2006. A Williams College grad, athlete and musician, he'd left for Iraq on the fifth anniversary of the 9/11 terrorist attacks. He was 25.

I met his parents and brother in Nevada in August 2007 while accompanying President George W. Bush to Reno, Nev. The president was there to address the American Legion before meeting with local families who'd lost a loved one in Iraq or Afghanistan. Mr. Bush has met with about 550 families in private visits like this. At those meetings, he would have a senior staff member close by in case there was something that needed to be followed up on, such as getting a flag to a family member.......

Read the rest here: http://online.wsj.com/article/SB124649175841883047.html#articleTabs%3Darticle

Please don't post comments bashing Rove. This isn't about politics to me...its about the fact that this nation has survived for 230+ years because when our time of need arises families like the Kristoff's step up. I am the proud descendant of a Minuteman who went on to serve in Trenton with Washington and with my own career I can only claim a slice of the glory of so many heroes.

Petraeus is anti-torture. Duh!

2009-05-30T11:56:00.005-04:00

General Petraeus gave an interview on Fox News yesterday where he reaffirmed his long held conviction that we must strictly adhere to the Geneva Conventions in our military operations and treatment of detainees. This was discussed in the context of the closure of Gitmo and how our enemies have used it as a public relations club to beat us over the heads with.

Immediately elements of the blogosphere lit up with eager enthusiastic writers saying that Petraeus was admitting that we had violated the Geneva Conventions thus repudating the Bush administration and leading to these folks further demanding the heads of President Bush, Cheney...et al. Some are even saying that Petraeus is finally standing up to the Republicans. What a bunch of stupid garbage.

The only thing I was thinking as I read the posts was..."um...duh...no s*** we violated the Geneva Conventions!" Has anyone been paying attention to the much publicized trials of soldiers from Abu Ghraib, or the worthless slime that raped and murdered the family in Mahmoudiya or the numbers of soldiers accused of murdering captured enemy? All of those are violations of the Geneva Conventions. All of those are being prosecuted. All of those are used by our enemies as public relations bonanzas.

Anyone who knows Petraeus is dumbfounded that the public is at all surprised that he supports the Commander-in-Chief's decisions on torture and believes the closing of Gitmo is a necessary act. He has been completely unequivocal in his steadfast support for the rule of law.

The general has been unbending in his anti-abuse and anti-torture position for this entire war. As far back as early 2003, I personally sat in on a number of division conference calls while in Mosul where he again and again hammered home the necessity of following the laws and living our values with the Iraqi people.

Two years later he was a three star and I one of his staff officers in Baghdad, it was no different then. I remember distinctly one of his very rare shows of anger when describing using "the full range of emotions" with our Iraqi counterparts when accusations of abuse and corruption came to our attention.

When nominated for his fourth star he reiterated those points in every testimony he gave before Congress. His bedrock principle has always been that we as soldiers must live our values or we give away the one true foundation of our efforts; We are a nation and Army of laws and morals.

Soon after taking command of Multi-National Forces-Iraq the general was briefed on the results of a survey of our troops which showed a disturbing weakening in our moral framework. He quickly issued a memo on 10 May, 2007 that was given to every single soldier in the country. He hammered the need to live by the rule of law and said in part "What sets us apart from our enemies in this fight, however, is how we behave. In everything we do, we must observe the standards and values that dictate we treat non-combatants and detainees with dignity and respect."

On the shocking news that he suddenly is against torture now that the Republicans are out of office pay attention to paragraph four which states: "Some may argue that we would be more effective if we sanctioned torture or other expedient methods to obtain information from the enemy. They would be wrong. Beyond the basic fact that such actions are illegal, history shows that they are also frequently neither useful nor necessary." Sounds almost exactly like what he has been saying lately to me.

You can read the entire memo here: Petraeus Memo on Values

It fits a convenient political narrative that the Army leadership has suddenly come around to criticizing the Bush administration but that narrative is false and entirely ridiculous. Those who are trying to make up these stories are oblivious to the fact that leaders like General Petraeus have been saying for the entire duration of this conflict that torture and abuse are illegal, immoral and counterproductive to our goals as soldiers.

Sorry guys but its no shock to anyone who has been paying attention that General Petraeus is a moral leader and isn't afraid to say so. We as soldiers must live our values or we are lost as a nation. Period.

...and hard truths

2009-05-28T12:46:00.003-04:00

Yesterday I wrote of the frustrations associated with those times when a journalist or news organization selectively uses quotes and highlights them for a certain slant. It can be incredibly difficult to try and tell your story to the world sometimes. Then last night I stumbled on to the latest piece from CNN's Arwa Damon and I was reminded why I genuinely like nearly every journalist I know.

I have written before of a core group of journalists who truly have tried to get inside the multi-faceted world that is Iraq, beyond the bombings, raids and atrocities. There have been those who have always strive to dig behind the scenes both of what we as soldiers are trying to do there and who the Iraqi people are. I haven't always agreed with what they say...but I always find it fascinating.

CNN's Arwa Damon is one of those. I met her during my second tour when she was working as a producer in the Baghdad Bureau. She is an incredibly funny level headed person and before long she moved to reporting and has consistently stepped out to find the stories others might not be telling.

She posted an interesting piece yesterday about the after effects of the militia fights that raged through Baghdad when neighbors turned on neighbors to conduct the most horrendous of acts. She asks the question throughout: How do you forgive and move on without justice? That is truly the question Iraq will face as we move away from supporting them and they stand on their own feet.

I recommend this story highly.

Inside Iraq: Living with the Enemy
Arwa Damon

CNN

BAGHDAD, Iraq (CNN) -- I first met Abu Wissam at the foot of his son's shallow grave. Never will he be able to erase the last image he has of his son's body.

"He was cut to pieces," he said. "His hands and feet were chopped off. And he was decapitated."

For a long time, Iraqis would say that it was "outsiders" that were carrying out such atrocities. The truth that is so hard to accept for many is that that often was not the case.

Iraqis turned on each other, neighbors slaughtered neighbors, friends betrayed one another. It was the sheer degradation of society on a shocking and utterly petrifying scale.

Abu Wissam's son Raed was a 25-year-old business school student. His fiancee says that one day he got a phone call from a college friend asking to meet him. Little did she know that it was a plot to lure him out of the house and that it would be their last goodbye.

They were childhood sweethearts. She says they knew that they would get married from the time they were six. "All I do now is cry," she sobs.

Raed's mother can barely form a coherent sentence. Her voice shakes with every word, uncontrollable tears pour down her face. Her hands tremble holding Raed's worn-out photograph. From time to time she caresses the image, the face that she will never touch again.

"I don't sleep." She stutters. "I take pills ... I live on pills."

"Nights aren't nights anymore, days aren't days. They cut his hands off, they cut his head off."

As the last words leave her mouth she can no longer speak, only cry.

The militia behind the kidnapping was the self proclaimed Mehdi Army, a Shia militia loyal to radical cleric Muqtada al-Sadr. And the militiamen were once friends and neighbors.

For years my colleagues and I have reported on the atrocities committed by Shia militias, Sunni insurgents, and al Qaeda gunmen.

We recited the daily tally of unidentified, mutilated bodies found in the streets of Baghdad. We spoke of beheadings, kidnappings and torture. But little did we really know about any of it.

Now that there is a semblance of so-called stability, we can start to put a face and name to the victims and begin to try and understand and impart the horrors of what millions of Iraqis lived through and tens of thousands died from. It is only now that we can begin to comprehend the magnitude of what Iraqis went through......

Read the rest here

Of headlines and half truths

2009-05-27T08:23:00.005-04:00

Its a classic situation in military media relations. You prepare for days. You pull all of the facts and figures to the finest detail. You bring together a range of journalists and analysts for a sit down to discuss all of the many topics you are dealing with. It goes great and the boss comes back happy that he had all the info he needed.

Then you wake up the day after and one toss off comment is the only thing being reported...and its completely wrong.

Army Chief-of-Staff General George Casey just had another one of those days. Today the AP is bannering its reports with the provocative headline "Army chief: Troops could be in Iraq after 2012". The story goes on to imply those rascally war mongering Army leaders are trying to drag out the war against the wishes of our political leaders. The blogosphere is diving on the headline as yet another example of the Pentagon flipping off the Commander-in-Chief.

Yet, that's not what he said at all. What he said was that as part of prudent planning for a million man Army that takes tens of billions of dollars to build, train and maintain his planners are working with the worst case scenario of troops in "Iraq and Afghanistan" for another decade.

Never did he say we would be in IRAQ past the 2012 deadline in any way beyond the forces agreed upon in the Status of Forces agreement. Just our training effort with our Iraqi partners is well over 10,000 folks and the drop in oil prices has set that effort back substantially as they can no longer purchase several weapons systems they were counting on to help gain greater independence. The Army staff's job is to plan for contingencies and put in place the necessary elements in training, recruiting and equipping to ensure we can meet those challenges.

It is the "Big Army's" job to maintain the force. The AP story even says "Casey's calculations about force levels are related to his attempt to ease the brutal deployment calendar that he said would "bring the Army to its knees." Casey would not specify how combat units would be divided between Iraq and Afghanistan." Yet the headline tacked on by the editors only highlights the Iraq side of that statement from their own story.

It is prudent planning to find a way to source the military for a worst case scenario for our current conflicts. Let's consider my first tour in the Army was in Korea in 1988...some 35 years after the fighting ended. We are just now finally extricating ourselves from Germany which has been an ally for somewhere around 63 years. It seems that maybe a prudent leader would plan for the worst case scenario.

It is such a ridiculous anti-war rant that somehow the Army leadership wants to stay in Iraq any longer than we must. How on earth does that make any sense? Have you ever buried a soldier? Have you ever shed a tear at the playing of Taps? Those of us who have are in no way seeking ways to extend our combat commitments.

However, we are trained and built to fight...and win...our nations wars. We don't make them. We don't seek them. We fight them. After spending so much blood, sweat and tears to fight this war we only seek the best possible outcome. We owe it to this country and, frankly, the Iraqi people to ensure that we do everything humanly possible to defeat the enemy and protect the people we serve.

The reporting on General Casey's remarks is wrong. Period. Would be nice to read some articles about what else he talked about but all we will see now is rants about how the Army leadership is undermining the President.

Thankfully the President and his folks know how this game is played.

An impatient patient

2009-05-25T22:34:00.005-04:00

I can't believe I have been off my posting for almost two months. I guess I have a decent excuse. I have been laid up with cast on my leg. I have had the interesting experience of being in the military medical system for almost 7 weeks but the really interesting part to me is that its been a remarkably positive experience.

I am actually in the communications business. I spend my time trying to find ways to tell soldiers, families and the public what we do and, hopefully, what we are doing right and unfortunately, sometimes what we are doing wrong. We have been talking a lot about the improvements we have been making to the medical system but its hard to really judge it without experiencing it. Other than physicals and little minor issues over the years I haven't had to deal with medical stuff much at all.

That changed this year. I guess at some point I dislocated a joint in my foot during my second tour in Iraq. Being a Ranger I took some Motrin and ignored it for the next two years or so. When I realized I had to get boots a half size bigger for my last trip to Baghdad to fit my swollen foot I figured it was time to ask if there was a problem.

Long story short I eventually found myself at Bethesda National Naval Medical Center under the care of a retired Navy Captain orthopedic surgeon. After six hours of surgery I ended up with three fused joints a bunch of other reconstruction and four or five really sweet scars.

I can honestly say the care has been remarkable. I am treated with respect and am getting top of the line care. I did my research when I found out what I was dealing with and everything I have learned is that I am being given the top treatment out there for my injury. Its a slow healing injury but I am confident when its all said and done I will be as capable as possible with the mess I stepped into.

Its not a perfect system by any stretch of the imagination. I have to drive 40 miles to see my doc each way and in DC traffic...that can suck hard. But when I get there my time is respected my concerns are answered end-to-end and I am getting whatever I ask for.

They even gave me a cool camo cast...so that's something.

So, from the perspective of one patient...things have improved a lot over the years. Perhaps I am an anomaly.

Now...if I could get medicine that makes me sit down and write more.

Tales of a train

2009-04-03T15:04:00.004-04:00

I found this great article today written by Anthony Shadid of the Washington Post about the recently reopened Baghdad-to-Basra train line for the front page of his paper Wednesday.

Anthony always manages to capture who the Iraqi people really are with his pieces. He is one of a group of incredibly talented journalists who write often on life in Iraq away from the guns and soldiers. While there are some amazing journalists I have met I look forward to stories that talk about the complexity that is life in Iraq by such talents as Leila Fadel and Hannah Allam with McClatchy, Sabrina Tavernise with the New York Times and Jane Arraf among others. They give you a rare glimpse into the real Iraqis that many of us who have served there know...and many of us never have had the chance to meet.

I enjoy these stories because I was fortunate to get to know enough Iraqis to get a little glimpse into that world myself and found Iraqis to be anything but the cartoons we often see. Like most societies they are full of contradictions and nuances that it is hard to see until you dig deeper into the lifestyles they lead.

I found a lot of those contradictions during my 2+ years in country. First, I was surprised to find that Iraqis are insufferable romantics who love poetry and love songs. I know of few countries where poets from history are immortalized with statues or squares in their name.

They are probably the most emotional people I have ever met. One of the toughest men I have ever known was a sheik in my district who would later become a battalion commander in the new Iraqi Army after having served as a special forces sergeant during the Iran-Iraq war. He cried for almost two hours at dinner the night before I left Ninewa for home in 2004.

They adore their history and the music that has always been a part of the fabric of their lives. Everywhere you go the radios are tuned to local stations and the haunting music serves as a background to life in Baghdad.

Anthony paints that picture beautifully in this piece...I recommend it for those who want to know the people beyond just the 2 minute glimpses from TV.

A Journey Into the Iraq of Recollection Baghdad-to-Basra Train Offers Respite From Divisions and Pain

By Anthony Shadid
Washington Post Foreign ServiceWednesday, April 1, 2009; A01

BAGHDAD -- A sandstorm always makes a dreary Baghdad drearier. The sun turns to a moon in a funereal gray sky. Time surrenders its procession, as dawn melts into a cloudy day that feels like dusk. Common these days, the storms bring a gauze of grit that settles over everything, and the eyebrows of Pvt. Bassem Kadhim were no exception.

Standing at a checkpoint at the entrance of the Baghdad Central Railway Station, he leaned toward a car. His eyes narrowed, as he cocked his head in recognition.

Um Kalthoum, the Egyptian diva of another generation, played on a scratchy cassette. It was the song "Siret al-Hob," her peerless voice soaring over the strains of a forlorn violin.

"Let me listen for just a moment," Kadhim told the driver, "then I'll let you pass."

He listened. "From a whisper of love, I found myself in love," Um Kalthoum sang. "I melted in love, spending morning and night at its door." And he let the car pass.

There is a new vigor to the cadence of the Baghdad train station beyond his checkpoint, revived after a long slumber. But like the legendary singer, it evokes a lost world. Two clock towers stand like sentinels on each side of a turquoise dome built half a century ago. Musty ticket counters advertise lines that no longer run: to Mosul, to Husaybah, and across the border, to Syria and Turkey. Flickering chandeliers illuminate distinctions -- Couchette Class, Tourist Class -- that no longer matter.

The station is a door of sorts, as is the train parked there.....

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/story/2009/03/31/ST2009033104416.html?sid=ST2009033104416

Beware of blog sharks

2009-03-24T14:56:00.006-04:00

It seems there is a new kind of predator swimming in the the blogosphere lately. Although technically, I suppose its the same old shark using new hunting techniques.

One of my favorite SNL skits from the 70's was the Land Shark bits. They always opened with a knock at a woman's door and ominous "Jaws" theme music. "Who is it?" she asks. The garbled voice says things like "candygram" or "plumber". When the woman says she isn't opening the door he tells her he's just a dolphin. She opens the door and gets eaten.

I ran into a shark a couple of weeks ago but I didn't hear the ominous music or I would have been more wary. I thought I had found a nice 'dolphin' working as an advocate for the good of finding a cure for a deadly disease but instead it was a predator in a suit.

It began when I received an email from a gentleman representing a website called Asbestos.com which bills itself as the "the leading asbestos and mesothelioma resource". He explained that he was the veteran liaison for the Mesothelioma Cancer Center (Asbestos.com) and they were reaching out to milbloggers to see if they would be interested in helping his organization get the word to veterans on asbestos exposure issues.

Coincidentally, my grandfather died of mesothelioma that he contracted while working in the shipyards of New England. This has proven to be one of the ways many Navy veterans have been exposed to asbestos as well and while the use of asbestos has stopped sufferers are still out there needing education and assistance.

At the moment I was leaving town on a trip and didn't have any time to do any research but told him to send me some info and I would be happy to help.

The next week I got an email with an attached article from them and set to work to see what I could draw from it. What I found was an oddly propaganda sounding piece with statements about how "asbestos safety concerns were silenced during that time for financial gains." I was particularly set off by an odd leap of fact that stated that since Iraq bought some $194,000 of asbestos in 2003 that today's servicemen are potentially being exposed because of the intense winds and desert sands.

My training in the communications business made my warning bells go off so I took my time and went to the website. It looked like a legitimate advocacy site until I finally noticed that on the very bottom in fine print was stated that the site was sponsored by a law practice called the Peterson Firm licensed in Florida. The "About Us" tab was a boastful litany of statements like this gem: " For more than a decade, Asbestos.com has been revered as the leading online resource for all issues surrounding asbestos exposure and resulting diseases." Yet, I couldn't find anywhere on the site who it was that had named them the leading resource or who precisely "revered" them.

What I did find was a tiny little disclaimer hot button hidden in 4-font at the bottom that leads to the real story behind the site. As it turns out the site is owned by a "for-profit" group by the name of the Asbestos and Mesothelioma Awareness Group which oddly has only been incorporated in Florida since just May, 2007. Even more coincidentally the Secretary and President of the company is a guy by the name of Peterson...same guy listed as the agent for the Peterson Law Firm which was only founded in October, 2004.

I am a proud product of the Missouri public school system and I know that neither of those dates go back a "decade".

As a matter of fact a quick Google search turned up a host of extremely negative postings about their business practice of reaching out to bloggers to pitch for them as well as the loose marketing facts they shoot out on their site on their history and connections. My favorite is this law professor who they foolishly approached: http://lawprofessors.typepad.com/tortsprof/2009/01/an-interesting.html

It becomes obvious in short order that this site has a squad of staffers whose job is to post the same story, slightly tweaked to every kind of specialty blog they can imagine. I found the same graphics and references on a law blog, a fireman's blog, a couple of milblogs as well as those for home builders and real estate investors.

While there is valuable information on the site the entire entity is geared and designed to drive victims into the hands of lawyers for big money lawsuits. The business of asbestos litigation is a multi-billion dollar enterprise and these guys have found a ready formula to leverage unsuspecting bloggers into being unwitting shills for their commercial gain.

I was ticked off immediately and wrote a very direct email to the guy who had contacted me and told him in no uncertain terms I wasn't going to be some fool driving traffic to their site thinking they were a non-profit or advocacy group. Interestingly, he never responded which tells me they probably get an awful lot of people who turn them down.

The whole affair makes me sick. There are so many legitimate organizations struggling to find support for their efforts and trying to find ways to tell their story in the social networking world. Yet these lawyers with cash coming out of their ears are hiring staff to write cookie cutter "stories" to be distributed by unwitting accomplices in their quest for more money. This kind of underhanded business practice just hurts those who are trying to do good things in the world with benevolent reasons instead of to get a new boat.

I have coined a new term for these predators: Blog Sharks. They cruise looking for unsuspecting targets to feed off of and if a taste bite finds them too difficult to swallow...they just move on to the next unwitting victim.

So when a Blog Shark knocks on your door and claims to be a friendly dolphin...bolt the lock, get your gun and warn the neighbors.

A unique parade

2009-03-15T00:46:00.005-04:00

There are actually days that working at the Pentagon is a real privilege. Bumping into old colleagues every time you step into the hallway or witnessing a bit of history from the cheap seats in DC are a couple of those privileges...but then there are moments you kind of shake your head at your luck.

One of those events was Friday when by luck of timing and place I was finally privileged to attend a Wounded Warrior March for the first time. Taking place every six weeks or so it brings about a dozen wounded service members and their families down from Walter Reed Army Medical Center to visit the Pentagon for a tour and to be honored by the employees of the Department of Defense. No cameras are allowed and no media coverage is invited. Just the wounded warriors and the people who labor in Washington so far away from the battlefield.

A good friend grabbed me in the corridor and we made our way up to Corridor 3 just minutes before the event was to start. The entire corridor was lined with several hundred civilians and service members who were all alerted by e-mail, many accompanied by children which is a fairly rare sight in the building.

The band began playing and the crowd began clapping, first in time with the band and then just a raucous cheering. Down the hallway came three escorts walking backwards, as all of the tour guides are trained to, followed by a train of men and women in various uniforms or street clothes riding in wheelchairs, walking on their own or moving slowly with canes and crutches.

They tried to make their way but progress was constantly slowed by members of the crowd patting them on the shoulder, shaking their hands and hugging them and their families.

A heartbreaking series of warriors in various states made their way through the building that had been the victim itself of the opening move in this global war. Many were missing a limb or sometimes several, others had wounds that were less obvious but each seemed dumbfounded by the attention.

More often than not a tear streaked wife, sister, mother or father were in tow behind the heroes as everyone from Under-Secretaries of Defense to 3-star generals and construction workers honored their sacrifices to our country.

The chairs rolled by and in the rear one soldier slowly made his way. He was missing an arm and needed a cane to walk but refused the wheelchair that was pushed empty behind him. He stopped often to squeeze the hands offered. He held his chin high. He walked as a warrior among those who have been there, those who have not and those who never will go.

He was still a warrior in every way.

I found myself moved and inspired by this simple ceremony.

I am told they went on to have lunch with Secretary Gates and General Petraeus but the rest of us went back to work. We work at different jobs doing whatever we can to make sure no more warriors will get the opportunity to march in that parade.

Sometimes its easy to forget that in DC but days like Friday make you remember the point all to well.

The beginning of the end

2009-02-27T23:36:00.006-05:00

The president announced his plan to withdraw the majority of our forces from Iraq by August 2010 Friday at Camp Lejeune. There will be a residual force of some kind providing training and support to the Iraqis as well as other unspecified missions but for the most part our ability to mount major combat operations will be completed in a year and a half.

I would love to say that there was some sort of emotional reaction to this. I didn't even find anyone at work talking about it for the most part. Its not a surprise really because most of us who have been there have already figured out this thing is about done.

I am sure politicians on both sides will claim some kind of victory. The anti-war types will triumph how they finally ended "Bush's war". The supporters of our efforts will crow how the surge and renewed counter-insurgency strategy made it possible for this president to pull us out in victory.

What I bet you won't find is many of those of us who have fought this war getting worked up either way. Those of us who have lost friends or pieces of ourselves to this effort hold a very distinct opinion of the experience. I don't venture to speak for anyone but myself, but for me I feel a kind of sadness.

My Iraqi friends must find their own way forward now. It is up to them to decide what that future will look like.

Six years ago I sat on a barrier watching my aircraft lift off into the dark and head north into enemy territory. A month and a half later I was eating lunch in a mud brick house...and very few things have been the same since.

I do know one thing for certain. My life is richer and better for the experience and I will be watching the next year and a half with sense of sadness, satisfaction and worry that my work isn't undone.

The pictures represent moments I won't forget from my three tours. The first is from my very first village visit to what became my second home, Jedallah Sofla. These children would become my surrogate family while far from my own.

The second photo was taken at the Ministry of Defense prior to the memorial for one of my partners in the Joint Headquarters who was gunned down in Baghdad. He had lived for several days and I had arranged for American doctors to evaluate him to no avail but for the effort I was given the distinct honor of being the only American to walk in the procession as we handed his body over to his family.

The third shot is a funny one from last July. We had just held a ceremony handing over refurbished HUMMV's to the Iraqis and while I was catching up with my old boss, General Petraeus, the host of the event offered him a massive piece of cake. In his typical smooth style he tried to pass it to me. Having almost passed out in the heat and seen the cake sitting there all day at that point I defered but he turned sharply and headed for his truck leaving me holding a chunk of sugar and flour the size of my boot.

That's Iraq for me. Quiet moments of family, sorrowful moments of loss and odd moments of humor. One country. One war. Many experiences.

The moves begin

2009-02-23T14:47:00.002-05:00

I have been remiss in my postings for the last few months. I suppose the only answer is the one I was taught my first day at West Point..."No excuse, Sir?"...and get back to writing about happenings in Iraq again...and other things that catch my interest.

In Iraq today's Washington Times has a story on the beginning of the migration out of the Iraqi cities under the Status of Forces Agreement. You may recall the agreement that was signed last fall has that we will move out of Iraqi cities by June 30th of this year.

I actually read a blog post where a poster was calling us all liars and blood thirsty killers because the commanders in Iraq said in a recent interview that there would still be US personnel on transition teams in the cities. This person saw this as proof we weren't complying with the Iraqis wishes by simply re-naming our "combat" troops as these bogus "transition" teams.

Well, like so many anonymous posters on the net his facts are a little off. We have had transition teams with the Iraqis from the very beginning. As a matter of fact, when then Major General Petraeus was asked to return to Iraq and take over the effort to train the Iraqi Security Forces he realized immediately that one of the missing pieces were mentors to partner with the new units.

One of his first acts was to recruit former commanders from our unit, the 101st Airborne, to make their way over and lead these teams. From the summer of 2004 on we had teams of varying sizes living, training and fighting with the new Iraqi Army units as they were stood up and went into the fight. Later as the National Police were formed the same concept was applied to dramatic effect in creating professionalism and accountability in those units.

Today there are 12-15 man Military Transition Teams (MiTT's), Police Transition Teams (PiTT's) and a host of other acronyms assigned to the ISF to mentor them forward and provide those "enablers" the US has that our partners don't quite have yet such as air support, MEDEVAC, UAV's and big gun fire support.

So, yes, it's true that we won't be leaving the cities in the sense of working with Iraqi partner units...but we are indeed moving the combat forces out...and are most certainly complying with the Status of Forces Agreement.

Here is the link to the story: http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2009/feb/23/us-starts-to-leave-key-iraq-bases/

U.S. starts to leave key Iraq bases

Richard Tomkins

BAQOUBA, Iraq American troops in Iraq are beginning to pull back from bases and outposts that were linchpins in the U.S. surge that helped reduce violence, prevent a civil war and allow peaceful elections.

In Baghdad, the Iraqi Ministry of Trade now has possession of what was once Forward Operating Base (FOB) Callahan, the locus last year for operations to quell militias loyal to anti-American cleric Muqtada al-Sadr in and around the Muslim Shi'ite slum of Sadr City.

U.S. military officials said about 15 other bases in Baghdad will follow suit before June 30, when all American troops are to have relocated from the nation's cities, towns and villages. The pullback is stipulated by the status of forces agreement that since Jan. 1 has governed the continued U.S. military presence in the country.....

Of peaceful transitions

2009-01-20T10:39:00.003-05:00

Nothing in my opinion depicts the strength of modern democracy like the peaceful transition of power. Today is the ultimate example to the world of how the most stable democracy in the world truly works. They get sucked into the rhetoric that flies on the hill, the harsh words in the blogosphere and the various exhortations of the candidates on the trail and believe our system is in disarray and they couldn't be more wrong.

I find myself at home observing it all with a sort of professional detachment. No matter what your politics in my line of work you find that in the end you work for one guy and politics has nothing to do with doing your duty. Duty takes precedence over everything else and if you don't like the orders you can leave and find yourself another line of work.

I have had the fortune to meet both of the gentlemen on the dias today. My day with President Bush was interesting. I was "volunteered" by a buddy while I was on leave to be an escort for the "support staff" when President Bush came to visit Ft. Campbell in March of 2004. No one had any idea what the "support staff" was. All I knew was my job was to sit in the front seat of a van and make sure they were happy.

Air Force One pulled up and this guy came jogging up and jumped in the van. I asked him who was this whole "support staff" and he said it was the doctor, the photographers, press secretary Scott McClellan and "me". I said..."um...who are you?". "I'm Karl Rove, senior advisor to the President". I actually said..."oh shit...I know who you are!" and then asked him if that was out loud? When he got done laughing he slapped me on the back and said we were going to have a good day.

At lunch we were standing outside the dining facility waiting for the President to come out. Mr. Rove asked if I had a camera and then took it from me. As the President and Mrs. Bush came out he called them over and said "you need to meet this guy" and took a picture of us as we waited for the official shot. They were very nice folks.

Flash forward to last July in Baghdad. The IZ was abuzz as Mr. Obama was touring with Senators Hagel and Reed in tow. My roommate came in at about 2300 giddy as he had spent the evening hanging out at the pool watching from a distance as the official party relaxed outside the guest house with some soldiers chatting.

The next morning I found them all eating with soldiers and inadvertently following the party out the exits. Being the boss I had time to hang out and struck up a conversation with Senator Hagel about our work in Iraq and my perspective after three tours and were shortly joined by Senator Reed who invited me to walk with him out to the motorcade that was waiting. Suddenly Mr. Obama wandered up and asked where I was from. When I told him St. Louis he burst into a wide grin and said "why you are practically a constituent!" I agreed and we shook hands before they quickly ran off to catch a waiting set of Osprey's. I only found out later the photographer missed the shot but I have a pleasent memory of the moment.

I found them both "presidential" full of that easy comfort that leaders bear who know their place in the world and what they must do. I found both of them appreciative of what I do for a living and now that Mr. Obama is being sworn in as my next Commander-in-Chief I found him to be more than up to the task.

Tomorrow I will put my uniform back on and go to work for a new administration. The American people and the world will never see me or any of my peers blink an eye as we do our duty and follow the orders given us.

This what a stable democracy does and the world should take note and follow our example.

Of dumb rockets and dummer people

2009-01-05T13:46:00.003-05:00

I have been watching the unfolding battle in Gaza very eagerly and with much less detachment than I think the normal observer would because of my intimate association with rockets after three tours in Iraq. It sickens me how much many observers are castigating Isreal for finally responding to the withering rocket fire they have endured for 8 years in southern Isreal.

Unless you have lived inside the range of unguided rockets you have no idea what kind of terror they can strike. The random nature and short warning time is almost debilitating to many people. I saw a fascinating video on NBC news last night where they followed one Isreali family as they scampered to their basement shelter four times in 12 hours due to incoming rocket fire from Gaza.

These are rockets fired with no other purpose then to kill civilians. Period. At least the fools in the Mahdi Militia were sort of attempting to strike military and government targets as they hammered the Green Zone daily last spring. Hamas makes no attempt to hide the fact they and their surrogates are indiscriminately targeting anyone in Isreal.

If my children had to be exposed daily to the stress I battled during my tours in Iraq when the alarms screamed to life and everyone bolted to shelters several times a day...well...I would be volunteering for the first tank into Gaza. We should be applauding the Isreali's for their restraint after all they have put up with.

This isn't a position based on politics for me...its based on the creeping fear that goes with a life lived under the threat of death. Its a life where you spend every waking moment looking for the next shelter just in case the alarm pops off or the sound of a slamming door sends a cold chill up your spine as your mind tries to confirm it isn't an explosion across the street.

For those of us who have lost friends to the random brutality of these attacks we can see clearly why Isreal has had enough.

I just can't help but wonder where all of these pompous complainers have been while Hamas launched volleys of missiles eastward every day for the last 8 years?

Life is hard...but its harder when you are stupid.

Heroes and idiots

2008-12-15T11:22:00.003-05:00

I fully intended to get on here and write a passionate post about the idiot reporter from al-Baghdadia TV who flung his shoes at the President. It was hard not to absolutely explode at the monumental stupidity of the Iraqi press corps that I have dealt with over two tours. The fact that the channel calls itself "Baghdadia" but the murky ownership is based in Cairo tells you much about the organization alone.

So, that was the plan but instead I stumbled onto a piece that talks about Gary Sinise being awarded the Presidential Citizens Medal on December 10th at the White House by President Bush. Its Christmas time...I would rather talk about a hero then a loser.

Interstingly, I was surprised to dig into the web and not find a single stand alone mention of this award being given to Mr. Sinise as it was also awarded to a former Nixon administration member at the same time and that fact dominated any talk of the ceremony.

The frustrating part is that Gary Sinise is an incredible guy and without question one of the leading voices in support of US soldiers and even more importantly the children of Iraq. He has been a constant backer of our efforts and bends over backwards constantly to be there for us with almost no public notice and probably a lot of negative feedback in the world he works in.

I am thrilled he was given this medal because no one I know of deserves it more. The Washington Times carried this piece from Andrew Breitbart:

Sinise: A man for all services

Since war became a geographically distant but very real way of life after Sept. 11, 2001, no Hollywood star has stepped up to support active duty U.S. military personnel and wounded veterans like Gary Sinise. There is no close second. And quietly, as is in his nature, he is becoming something akin to this generation´s Bob Hope.

One step in conferring this worthy title on the award-winning actor, director and producer occurred last week when President Bush bestowed on him the Presidential Citizens Medal, the second highest civilian honor awarded to citizens for exemplary deeds performed in service of the nation. Previous recipients include Henry "Hank" Aaron, Muhammad Ali, Colin L. Powell and Bob Dole.

While the White House ceremony flew under the radar of most of the media, most notably the entertainment press, word has trickled out to many of his countless admirers in and out of the military. And on the occasion of him receiving the award, they want America to take in their words of praise for, as Sharon Tyk in the USO of Illinois put it, this "gallant American patriot........"

http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2008/dec/15/sinise-a-man-for-all-services/

The whole piece is worth a read as it touches on the remarkable things Mr. Sinise does for our troops and the people of Iraq. Also visit his Operation Iraqi Children website which provides school supplies and other items for kids all over the country and supports Soldiers in their efforts. An effort well worth supporting in spite of the stupidity of the Baghdad press corps.

http://www.operationiraqichildren.org/

Calm for the holidays

2008-12-11T07:35:00.002-05:00

Progress is a many splendored thing it seems. Its funny how the absence of violence in your life is something to celebrate but this is the life that most Iraqi's face. It's nice to read the story below and compare it to past holiday's. This follows reports last week that violence is not at its lowest level for the entire duration of our efforts in Iraq. I am also hearing rumors of a compromise timeline being hammered out between the military and the incoming administration that satisfies both sides.

Peaceful holiday's and my comrades coming home...a good way to celebrate any time....not just Christmas.

Calm Lets Iraqi Families Celebrate Muslim Holiday

Iraqi families rejoiced at being able to celebrate a traditional Muslim holiday without the fear of bombs and violence.

By Adam Ashton, McClatchy News Service

BAGHDAD -- For the past few years, Nawal Abdulla Hadi of Baghdad couldn't travel to see her family for the Eid al Adha, giving up the traditional reunion during the annual Muslim holiday because the roads weren't safe.

The explosions that regularly shook her neighborhood in 2006 and 2007 have ceased, however, so she'll pack the kids Wednesday and take them to see their grandparents in Hillah, a city about 60 miles south of Baghdad

''This is the first time we've left our house in the Eid,'' she said, smiling, in a public park along the Tigris River on Tuesday with her six children and husband.

''Now I feel it's real safety, not just propaganda,'' she said.

Hadi is one of many Iraqis who are enjoying a noticeable decrease in violence over the past year, a trend that's allowing them to celebrate the holidays as they once did.

Iraqis began preparing for the Eid last week. The holiday marks Abraham's willingness to sacrifice his son Ishmael to God, and it follows an annual pilgrimage for Muslims to Mecca, Saudi Arabia.

In Baghdad, people crowded street markets at night last week, buying new clothes, another tradition for families who can afford it. Many bought sheep this week as a religious sacrifice that also honors deceased relatives.

''This Eid is the most beautiful Eid of the last few years,'' said Mazin Shihan, 34, Hadi's husband. ``During the last Eid, we didn't see families anywhere. Now they're everywhere.''

Fears of attacks seemed distant Tuesday while families gathered at Abu Nawas Park. The scent of popcorn drifted along a paved path where vendors sold snacks ranging from hamburgers to figs. Children played on swing sets while adults laughed at picnic tables on a sunny but cool day.
''It gives me a feeling of friendship, happiness, life and peace,'' said Heider al Jabouri, a sculptor from Hillah who went to the park with his sister's and his children.

Elsewhere in Iraq on Tuesday, police arrested six men who allegedly had a role in planning two suicide attacks that killed 15 people in Fallujah last Thursday. Fallujah police Col. Dawood al Marawi said the men had been seized in a home in the town of Abu Ghraib west of Baghdad and that they were suspected of belonging to al Qaeda in Iraq.

Police and coalition military forces also raided the Fallujah office of the National Assembly of Journalists. Police declined to say why they conducted the raid.

McClatchy special correspondent Laith Hammoudi contributed to this report.

Changes in attitude...

2008-12-05T12:40:00.002-05:00

I caught the news that General Odierno has released a letter to the troops in Iraq about what the impact of the new SOFA means to the members of MNF-I and I was reminded of one of my favorite poets and his important words. You may have heard of the great philosopher James William Buffett and he once wrote that there are "Changes in latitudes, changes in attitudes, nothing remains quite the same".

I am often reminded of those words in my military career and this time in Iraq is probably going to be one of the most significant changes in our entire mission. In one fell swoop we have entered into an accord that will have far reaching effects on how we do our mission. We can no longer simply pick a target and launch out with out coordination or even warrants in many cases.

General Odierno issued a letter to the troops explaining in general what the changes going into effect on the 1st of January will mean and a warning of new rules of engagement and tactics, techniques and procedures to be issued in coming days. (You can see the letter here: http://www.mnf-iraq.com/images/CGs_Messages/cg_letter_on_the_security_agreement.pdf )

It will be interesting to see the many changes that will occur in the coming months as more and more responsibility is passed to our partners and our forces move out of the cities by June.

OVERHEARD AT THE PENTAGON:

I was walking down the hallway behind two Air Force colonels as we passed the vending machines. Sandwiched between the snacks and soda's was a machine for over the counter pharmaceuticals. It elicited a chuckle from the two who were obviously new to the building. One said to the other "Wow...that says something about the place with how many different headache meds there are in there." As I passed them I commented "Not really, they need to stock it with hemorrhoid creams after some of the meetings I have sat in."

The big "if"

2008-12-04T08:31:00.003-05:00

An anonymous poster asked me my thoughts on areas where a faster withdrawal is possible so I have been thinking about what it all means. It is a great question on how to speed things up and frankly, one I am underequipped to answer in many ways. However, in my opinion there are opportunities as the political situation there continues to stabilize.

The thing about Iraq is that security is in many ways "where you sit". With the fall of the JAM after the government took Sadr City and Basra almost the entire swath from Baghdad south has now dramatically stabilized. As long as the ISF can maintain that security we have a huge opportunity to hand it all over quicker with the added bonus its closer to our exit points in Kuwait.

The trick is always the big "if" that is associated with our efforts in the land of the two rivers. We can move our departure up: "If" things don't go south politically with the Shia, "If" the SOI don't turn their frustration with the government back into armed rebellion, "If" the government forces maintain and grow their professionalism as non-political actors. "If" the current government doesn't give in to its worst attributes such as corruption and sectarian pettiness.

So, I share my old bosses cautions with all things in Iraq, that progress there is often fragile. But, there is no denying that things are moving in the right direction over all. There is no question there are still bursts of spectacular attacks and the ISF is still struggling to grow and build a professional force. But, the Iraqis are motivated to be masters of their own destiny.

When I talked to media about our efforts building the new ISF I used to describe our efforts like riding a roller coaster up a mountain. You have times where you feel like the world is dropping out from under you as you plunge down a slope or when you think its going sideways instead of up. But when you get off the ride and look back at the tracks, you realize that you were still moving UP the mountain that whole time. There are just twists, turns and bumps on the way to climb the peak.

Our endeavour has reached a point where I am comfortable to say we can talk openly about moving out and handing Iraq's fate to her people to decide who they want to be in the world.

There is my 2 cents for what it's worth.

Funny how things go

2008-11-29T23:27:00.002-05:00

Its been an interesting time in Baghdad according to my friends still there. Most of my colleagues are finding themselves in incredibly quiet times watching the Iraqis take more and more of the mission out of our hands. My media friends are about sick of the whole SOFA discussion. One told me she doesn't even want to hear the word SOFA ever again so furniture shopping is going to be a bear.

But on Thanksgiving the Iraqi Council of Representatives finally ended the wrangling over the agreement and passed it once and for all...well...kinda. They passed it with an agreement to put it to a referendum for the whole country by July. So that gives them a provincial election in January, the referendum for the SOFA in July and then district elections in the fall. Man, they love their elections in Iraq. They just eat that whole democracy thing up.

But in spite of it all the fact is they have passed an agreement that will officially lead to our departure from their country for the most part over the next three years. I think its probably way to early to see how this will settle out. Our old friends in the Sadr Trend are making noise about the agreement and violence showed an uptick in the lead up to the vote in parliament so like everything in Iraq the situation is fragile but incredibly hopeful.

The challenge is that the Iraqis are masters of what I refer to...in technical terms...kicking the can down the road. They are big fans of the whole idea of why worry about something today in hopes it will be less trouble next year. That is how this whole thing started. Saddam kept kicking the whole "I-ain't-got-any-WMD" can down the road hoping we would forget or get distracted by something else like a new shiny toy. Unfortunately, that didn't work out all that well for him and I worry now that the whole kicking the SOFA can down the road a bit doesn't blow up the same way.

But all we can do is keep taking the victories as they come and keep driving on with the mission. In the mean time our partners are taking the battle to the enemy and more and more of those guys are finding Iraq an infertile ground for their plots.

Thanks to all of the nice folks who came over from Mudville Gazette to wish me and my fellow soldiers a Happy Thanksgiving. It is truly appreciated. This was truly a wonderful holiday surrounded by my family, laughter and too much turkey. (The wife said.."Go grab the biggest turkey you can find" thinking I would find a 22 pounder maybe. Uh..nope. I got us a 30 pounder cause I followed instructions. So now we have like 25 pounds of leftover bird.) Lesson learned: be careful the mission you give a Ranger.

OVERHEARD AT THE PENTAGON: While waiting for the shuttle bus outside the building last Monday a pair of businessmen in very nice suits approached a group of four Army officers in uniform with Pentagon badges on their chests to ask "Excuse me...do you guys work here?"

Positive leadership

2008-10-29T13:53:00.012-04:00

I think I have mentioned before that I was fortunate to have worked for General Petraeus when he was commanding as a three-star in Baghdad in 2005. I was reminiscing about those interesting days as he prepares to take command of CENTCOM this Friday and stumbled onto some of my notes from our morning meetings.

Throughout my career I have always chuckled at the things we soldiers will say and have always had the habit of scribbling down the funnier quotes as I hear them. It's always fun to roll them up later and present them as memories for everyone. Anyone who has known GEN Petraeus knows that he can snap off some pretty good one-liners that can sting you, stun you or just make you chuckle depending on if you are the target of the shot or not.

As he prepared to leave us in September of 2005 I strung together some of his best lines from our meetings and threw them up as my portion of his last morning update. Here are a few of my favorite quotes with context added...enjoy.

"Iraqi's can build! Just add money and stir."

Remarking after one of the staff officers expressed surprise at the incredible speed with which our local contractors were finishing a project.

"Confessions are good for the soul."

After the intelligence officer expressed a mea culpa for a previous mistake.

"Is that Mohammed with an 'e' or Mohammad with an 'a'?"

A well used demonstration of why the Iraqis are better at gathering local intelligence than we are. While we are trying to get the spelling right on a name they are already dashing off to scoop up the bad guy.

"Fredo, never argue against the family."

Rolling out a favorite Godfather quote to explain to the lawyer why he really didn't need him to explain every single side of an issue.

"We're trying to get things done...not build databases."

Explaining to a new supply officer why there was a need for more urgency on a mission than he was used to applying in previous assignments.

General P: "What do you think JAG?"

Lawyer: "I don't know, sir."

General P: "Very well! I love clarity in a lawyer."

Looking for advice from the lawyer and not getting it.

"Don't analyze it. Just do it."

Exhorting the staff to not over think obvious missions.

"I can read faster than you can talk."

Silencing a staff officer with the annoying habit of reading his slides.

"Don't get sympathetic to them...I sense you are getting Stockholm Syndrome."

Urging the personnel officer to be more aggresive in pushing the Iraqi recruiting teams out to the distant parts of the country.

"We have had to break the 'inshallah' school of marksmanship."

Explaining to a visitor our focus on accurate aimed fires with our partners as opposed to the old school Iraqi way of holding an AK above their head, emptying a magazine and hoping God will guide the bullets to the target.

"The Army is full of Shia!"

An explanation of the need to recruit more Sunni's for the Iraqi Army that caused the staff to chuckle under their breaths like fourth grade boys.

My personal favorite and philosophy of operating I have used throughout my career:

"Be aggressive. Ask forgiveness."

Welcome comments to a new staff officer and what probably should have been our command motto.

It will be interesting to watch the old boss in his new role...and undoubtably entertaining for those trying to keep up with him.

The photo is from an event we attended at Taji Military Base north of Baghdad back in June.

A thoughtful silence

2008-10-14T23:11:00.002-04:00

Its been a couple of weeks since I posted. I have actually seen a few great stories come and go that I felt compelled to write about. From the hand over of the Awakening Movement to the Iraqi Government to some incredibly encouraging pieces on the return of some semblance of normalcy to most of Iraq.

Yet, I couldn't write. There is a phase I always go through upon returning from Iraq where I am watching events with a distant detachment. Its like having to let go of a lover in many ways. For the first few weeks and months you want to just can't seem to move on. You pick up the phone and hang up. You take the long way home from work to see if her lights are on still. You wonder if she is thinking of you.

But, then you have to give it up. You have to move on with your life. In the case of an Iraq veteran there is that period while you are on leave where you are surfing the net looking for any news of your old unit or sector. Wondering how they are doing and if you are missed. But you know you aren't a part of it anymore.

As much as it breaks your heart a little life goes on. You go back to work. You sit on the train each day and the world passes by the window and the politicians yabber on and on. While most of the people around you are worried about their portfolio collapsing you quietly worry about your Iraqi friends being kidnapped and murdered.

I had to take a little break I guess and transition to this side of the planet. Focus on hiking with my son, going shopping with my daughter or sneaking to the beach with my wife. Focus on picking up the pieces of the shambles of a career.

I am back at work and I see fellow soldiers I served with. They are all happy to be home...kind of. I can see a sort of distant look in everyone's eyes though they don't want to admit it. They too are trying to act like they don't miss it.

You smile and reminisce and at some point in the conversation a thoughtful silence settles on the discussion. You punch each other on the shoulder and wander off back to work.

Another day at home while your fellow warriors labor on 6000 miles away.

A casual disdain

2008-09-26T12:55:00.002-04:00

I have been casually watching the trailers and buzz about the upcoming movie about three Iraq veterans called "The Lucky Ones" since I got back from my deployment in August. I would love to say its because of some interest in what Hollywood has to say about the war that has consumed my life for the last five years but the truth is I am curious as hell what Rachel McAdams and Tim Robbins will do portraying soldiers.

The reviews have been pretty positive over all and it really seems from the trailers they are trying to give us a fair shake instead of portraying us all as victims or mentally scarred lunatics as all of the other movies produced on the war have done.

Oddly, I was reading the review by Tom Charity on CNN.com this morning when about two thirds of the way down I stumbled on this little gem of a paragraph (emphasis added by me)

"Even so, it's obvious all their options are limited. That could be why they enlisted in the first place."

http://www.cnn.com/2008/SHOWBIZ/Movies/09/26/review.lucky.ones/index.html

As soon as I read it I almost spit my coffee onto my keyboard. In one little short sentence this movie reviewer has said what I hear so often from some members of our society that only people with no options, poor education or are easily fooled by the government join the military.

I am constantly amazed how out of touch some people are with those of us who serve out of duty, patriotism, or simply, because we actually enjoy the work. To say that the military is full of misfits, criminals and uneducated fools shows such a lack of understanding it is stunning.

I can't speak for others but I am pretty sure that since I graduated from West Point and then Harvard with an MPA and Fellowship I probably have some options I could pursue other than being a soldier and volunteering to go back to combat again.

I serve because this is my life, my duty. On my father's side we have had someone fight in nearly every war in our history to include the French and Indian War. Both of my only uncles lost their lives in service. My father's brother while covering the withdrawal from frozen Chosin in Korea and my mother's brother while piloting a B-47 bomber at the height of the Cold War.

My soldiers, sailors, airmen and Marines that have worked for me these last 21 years all had a lot of options. Many of them pursued them after just one enlistment. Many others went on to long careers like me.

There is no doubt about it that the military provides options that perhaps someone didn't have when he started. My own father graduated college thanks to the GI Bill after WWII and many fine Americans now have more options thanks to their service. But to insinuate that lack of options drives those who serve is a misguided idea.

A friend who is a reporter told me that shortly after returning to the US after several years in Iraq covering the war she was at a New York cocktail party discussing her experiences. A woman asked her what she had been doing and when she told her she had been embedded with the US soldiers the woman scrunched her nose in disgust and asked "Did you shower afterwards?" My friend was sure she wasn't refering to the dusty conditions.

The finest people I have ever met shrug at that story and go back to the dirty business that is fighting for freedom far from home. You laugh at the casual disdain and false sympathy and thank those that truly care...and move on with the mission because that's what duty means.

Carrying on with the mission when others would walk away.

I don't know if I will go see that movie. I doubt they will talk about duty, honor and country without a smirk.

Local elections and moving goal posts

2008-09-25T09:53:00.002-04:00

Lost in the lunacy that is the economic train wreck unfolding yesterday was the news that the Iraqi parliament overwhelmingly passed the provincial elections law after finding a compromise on the issue of how to handle Kirkuk.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/09/24/AR2008092400752.html?hpid=moreheadlines

With the law finally passing they have set the stage for elections to occur at the local and provincial level in late January. This is a very important event in a number of ways. Most importantly is, as Tip O'Neil famously stated, "all politics is local" and frankly it hasn't been in Iraq. The national parliament was elected based on party slates so the people voted for a party and not a person.

With a certain percentage of the vote the parties got that many seats and there is no answering to a constituency or angry voters. Many of them haven't visited their home towns since returning from exile in the last five years. This next election will make things local and representative and hopefully set the stage for the next national election to better represent the people of Iraq and their needs.

Second, is that it truly marks movement in political reconciliation. I find it interesting because those who continue to insist the surge has been a failure love to point out this nebulous idea that although violence is down the Iraqis have failed to reconcile as promised so its not working.

As a student of history I find it funny when you consider that we had that whole Civil War thingy about 85 years after our founding (and in some parts of our country I don't think some folks have still found reconciliation from that fight) then its patently ridiculous to think the Iraqis are suddenly going to find peace, brotherhood and love in a coupld of years.

That argument is nothing more than moving the goal posts to suit a political agenda and it frustrates the hell out of those of us who have fought this fight. Every time we reach an objective the pundits, activists and politicians move the goals again. "Oh yeah...well...sure violence is down 90% but...gee...nobody has any jobs so the surge failed".

It's always a new twist on the same argument with the following steps:

1) Find what hasn't improved
2) Make that the goal you supported all along
3) Declare the enterprise a failure
4) Go get another macchiato at Starbucks

Of course I could be biased.

Heroes in sneakers

2008-09-19T15:05:00.006-04:00

I ran across this story today on CNN.com about a blind veteran of the Vietnam war who has been meeting each departing and arriving aircraft in and out of Hunter Army Airfield in Savannah, Georgia for the last four years.

I saw so many amazing volunteers this last five years. Just last month when I flew into Bangor, Maine there was a group of dedicated folks waiting to shake each of our hands as we passed into the terminal for a brief layover at 6 in the morning! They stood there with smiles on their faces and a hand shake for each bleary eyed soldier that passed by.

We soldiers are a funny bunch. We talk a good game about being tough and playing it cool when faced with danger or stress but deep down we are like anyone else and I think in many ways we are more sensitive than a lot of people. We do appreciate these kinds of gestures and they matter. So, we will walk by and shake the hands and saunter off to get a cup of coffee but as you settle down in that small aircraft seat you remember the thoughtfulness that went into that act and reflect on it. It matters.

Many people talk a good game about how they support the troops but its so gratifying to find people who truly live that support by making sacrifices like standing in an airport terminal or seeing off an aircraft full of nervous soldiers as they face their rendezvous with destiny.

Check the story out here http://www.cnn.com/2008/US/09/19/heroes.walt.peters/index.html and below.

I can't speak for all soldiers...but I truly appreciated that warm smile and friendly pat on the back of appreciation when I dragged myself off the plane after my third trip into the breach.

Veteran to soldiers: 'It's OK to be scared'

SAVANNAH, Georgia (CNN) -- Walt Peters knows what it's like to fear for his life. He knows how it feels to board a plane, deploying for combat. He knows the feeling of making it home alive.

That's why the retired Vietnam veteran has stood outside at Hunter Army Airfield in Savannah, Georgia, for the past four years as a beacon of pride and support, welcoming home returning soldiers and wishing "Godspeed" to those deploying.

"To me, if it wasn't for our soldiers and our veterans, we would not have this beautiful country," says Peters. "These guys are our freedom."

Peters, 64, has been one of the last people that about 20,000 soldiers so far have seen before boarding the plane for the war zone -- and one of the first seen upon return.

No matter what time the soldiers' flights are arriving or departing -- many take place in the middle of the night -- Peters is there to shake their hands and give them a token of support: a small American flag. Some of those flags, Peters says, have gone to Iraq and back.

"When they touch that flag, we're giving them a piece of our country, saying, 'Thank you.'"

Peters is not the only volunteer showing his support at each flight. But he does all of this nearly blind.

He says learned he had chemical diabetes nearly 10 years ago after he was exposed to Agent Orange during his Vietnam tours. He has lost almost all of his sight over the past few years, but that hasn't depleted his dedication to the soldiers.

"When I went to Vietnam on my tours I'd never had this. I had never had nobody say, 'We appreciate your service. We thank you for what you're doing for our freedom,'" Peters says. "When they get on that plane, they're gonna know that this old Vietnam vet cares."

Peters first became involved greeting flights through the Savannah Red Cross in 2004 when a friend from his fraternal Moose Lodge brought him to welcome a returning flight. Peters has since become a flight greeting leader, bringing in and training his own volunteers.

His crew includes Moose members and Vietnam veterans. So many flights come in, Peters says, that it's impossible to be present for all of them. He's worked as many as three flights in one day, in a 26-hour period. Watch how Peters sends off and greets deploying and returning U.S. soldiers »

Peters and his volunteers arrive two hours before a flight's arrival or departure to set up their tables and brew coffee. He makes sure he walks around and talks with the troops when they come through for processing.

"I'm a combat veteran; the soldiers know I can relate to them," Peters says. "I tell them, 'It's OK to be scared. You stay scared, you stay alive.'"

Peters also talks to the soldiers about the Adopt-A-Soldier program, asking them to fill out a card so a family can "adopt" them and send care packages and necessities to them in Iraq or Afghanistan.

Peters says the most important thing is to show the soldiers "the support and the spirit that they need behind them as they step up to get on that plane."

"Sometimes it breaks your heart because you ask yourself, 'Which one of these beautiful people is not coming home?'"

But as long as there are soldiers deploying and returning, Peters says he'll be there.

"I see the roots of our country and our future in every one of these soldiers," he says.

Those in glass houses

2008-09-17T18:38:00.003-04:00

I have said it before and I say it again, I am a crappy blogger. Vacation was truly a joy and it seemed wrong to break it up with thoughts of the larger world very often. Which of course is a total BS excuse…I am just lazy.

I find myself once again riding the train north to DC each day breaking open the Washington Post and watching the world scroll by. Its odd following things in Iraq sitting comfortably riding a train while my fellow soldiers and Iraqis are a world away.

A story caught my eye today because I am always asked about corruption in Iraq and why we aren’t doing more to stop it, allowing it to flourish or even worse ignoring it. I always shake my head when people hit me with this as if we can somehow control the actions of Iraqi government officials in a 3000 person ministry with our 30 or 40 advisors who don’t speak the native language.

I have had reporters just stare at me as if I am insane when I tell them that it is beyond our capacity to catch every act of corruption in Iraq. I have heard of some staggering cases of theft during my three tours but in the last year I have been telling the story of one of the most over the top corruption cases I ever came across.

It turns out that one government employee had put together a whole conspiracy and has been stealing millions of dollars and spending it on lavish shopping trips and gifts for her friends and family and no one caught it. In the end she stole something like $48 million and got away with it for years even after audits, inspections and several different supervisors.

Where did she work? The Iraqi Ministry of Defense? Ministry of Interior? Prime Minister’s office?

Nope…the Washington D.C. tax office.

Harriette Walters ran a scam over the terms of four different mayors since the mid-80's and got away with it right in our nations capitol. She plead guilty yesterday and will likely get a couple of decades in jail for her efforts along with some 10 of her co-conspirators.

Here is the story in today's Post:

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/09/16/AR2008091601817.html

So, if we can’t stop corruption in the local government of our nation’s capitol can somebody out there tell me how the US military and State Department are somehow supposed to stop it in Baghdad? At least they speak English here in DC.

The fact is that we have to fight it wherever we can and push our partners hard to stop it ferociously but by the same token it’s a big world outside our little bubble here in the US. Out there…people steal money from the government and the citizens all the time. We are blessed to live in a country that has the rule of law and the mechanisms to enforce those laws but we shouldn't throw too many stones or the glass house might get a few cracks.

Before we get too self righteous about our superior system of government and its checks and balances we better make sure some lady in sneakers isn’t cutting checks to her cousins right in our own city hall.

A question of gratefulness

2008-09-07T08:57:00.007-04:00

Well, I have enjoyed my leave immensely. I have managed to be lazy yet productive on the home front while even squeezing in some running again to whip my broken old body into some kind of shape other than that of a pear. I can say with no reservations that it is very good to be home. I will let you know how if I feel the same way after I start commuting back up to DC Monday.

One thing I have noticed lately is that my 10-year-old son is quickly becoming something of an expert in Iraq and foreign policy…whether he wants to or not. He has been trapped in more of my dissertations in the last five years than any kid should have to endure. It just seems every time we go somewhere and folks find out I am a three time veteran the questions start and he has to endure another of my long winded answers.

Last week his annual pediatrician school check up was the latest opportunity for a little lesson in my perspective on life in the cradle of civilization. His doctor is a native of Vietnam and was asking why is that the Iraqis are so ungrateful of what we have

done for them?

It’s a question I am asked often and one that even my 5^th grader can rattle off an answer too. Frankly, they have earned a little frustration with how this enterprise has gone. It’s easy to forget they were “liberated” and every one of the worst kinds of things were unleashed from criminals to terrorists while the economy was forcefully converted from a command one with 1/3 of the citizens working for the government to a free market one with 40% unemployment.

I was very fortunate to work for General Petraeus and have the opportunity to discuss our work in Iraq at great length with him on a number of occasions. He taught me more lessons than an officer of my caliber deserves and one of those that had always stuck in my mind is that an army of liberation has a half life before it turns into an army of occupation. All we can do as members of that army is to try and lengthen that conversio

n for as long as possible.

That is what we did in Mosul during our year there. We acted as the government of the people and did everything possible to engender their trust and work in their interest. Unfortunately, the brutality of the enemy made the business of security become the priority and things simply devolved.

On an individual basis the Iraqi’s are very grateful. My boy laughed recounting the many phone calls I still get from my Iraqi friends, often unable to speak

English, but eager to talk to me and find out how I am doing.

But Iraq is in a tough neighborhood they can neither be seen as a lackey to the US nor run too far from our friendship. Their leaders have to balance a tremendously complicated political and ethnic cauldron without getting too far in front of our partnership. Its easy to forget that they are facing a critical election not long after ours and more often than not the things you read are not to influence our voters--but theirs.

Are the Iraqis grateful for the freedom we have given them in blood and treasure? Yes.

Are they going to kiss our butts to show it? No.

Welcome to the real world.

(The photos: The top one is my partner in Baghdad COL Ali and I waiting for a helicopter pick up and telling stories of wars we have fought together...and against each other. The lower one is some decidedly grateful school children in Ninewa province in October 2003 when we opened their renovated school for them.)

Black and white in a grey land

2008-08-24T23:48:00.003-04:00

I am often amazed at how we like to see the world in black and white here in the United States. There is good and evil, sweet and sour, right and wrong. We tend to too easily categorize people and we do it in short sighted ways. You see much of the world is grey and Iraq is a place of many shades of grey. Often the bad guys are really bad and the good guys aren’t perfectly good. We have to figure out those distinctions to do business the right way there but often those distinctions are much blurrier than our American minds can see.

I started seeing this difference early in my first tour. After 35 years or so of various forms of dictatorial rule Iraq has become a place where simple answers don’t exist.

I learned this while trying to field contracts to build small schools in the little farming villages surrounding our air base in southern Ninewa province in 2003. We had settled on a basic design for every school based on the number of potential students and hired local contractors to build each one with the stipulation they had to hire the villages to build it. This way we would get more bounce for every dollar spent as the village would get a professionally built school and the money to build it was injected into their very own pockets.

Within weeks my colleagues were coming to me to tell me how they were being offered kick backs and bribes by the Iraqi contractors or sheiks to sweeten the potential for each village to get one of the coveted schools or to up the size greater than needed. Guys were getting pretty pissed and wanted to cut off the contractors and stop working with some villages as punishment.

I took a step back and explained that’s how business has been done there for decades. I called it a “two-handed hand shake”. One hand seals the deal and one hand is to offer cash to make it actually happen. I gave everyone a three strikes rule. The first time they offered a bribe you laughed it off and explained that we American soldiers don’t play like that. The second time was a stern warning that it was unacceptable business practices for working with us. The third time they joined the growing banned business list. The problem quickly ended in our sector.

A year later I found myself in Baghdad and the confusion that we as Americans faced in the grey world of Iraq continued. We had a problem where some of the US soldiers working with the Iraqi Security Forces had gotten in the habit of venting their issues with our partners to the media. Hardly a week went by without another story about how they were lazy cause they took a weeks leave a month (to take their cash pay check to their families), or didn’t show up on time for missions, or weren’t up to the task of fighting for their country.

To me it was kind of simple after losing my interpreter to an Al Qaeda beheading. The guys who volunteered to be in the Iraqi Security Forces are generally the good guys. The guys sawing people’s heads off were definitely the bad guys. That’s not to say there aren’t some bad guys mixed in to the ISF, that’s that grey area we find in Iraq. But the fact was that we are being counterproductive to air our complaints and bash the good guys when there are definitely some very bad guys out there with far worse things to deal with.

Now I find myself at home and am listening to the pundits and even some political campaigns bash the Iraqi government because they have gained a budget surplus from the exploding price of oil. We are actually beating up our allies who are murdered on their way to work because they are succeeding in what we hoped they would.

They have a budget surplus because they were in no way prepared to have the kind of money flow into their coffers that the oil spike has created. After living under a command economy for 35 years and the constant threat of being thrown in jail for corruption it’s actually hard to spend that much money.

Few people realize that in Iraq if an official is accused of corruption he can be removed from his position even before being brought to trial. It became an effective tool of some parties to accuse their opponents in the ministries of corruption and then replace them with their own cronies. Now almost everyone is afraid to be the guy who cuts the checks. Many decisions are pushed all the way to the minister himself because no one wants to be the guy who signs away millions of dollars to the wrong people and finds himself thrown in with the terrorists.

These are the travails of a new democracy in the third world dealing with a lot of grey issues. We can sit here and throw stones at them from our lofty 232 year history of democracy but life is not black and white in Iraq. All we do with every tossed stone is prove to them we don’t know a damn thing about Iraq as it is today.

(The picture is from the construction site of our first school and clinic in Ninewa as the contractor explains to me how he is employing the villagers to build the project.)

Failed myths and those who sell them

2008-08-20T22:47:00.008-04:00

Sometimes the truth comes out and nobody notices because a myth has been sold for so long. The truth about the Mehdi Army, or Jaesh Al Mehdi (JAM) as we soldiers call them, is finally coming out but it seems everyone is too busy to care now. The Olympics are in full swing, Georgia is fighting for its survival and the clock has moved on it seems.

I thought of this because I caught a gut wrenching story on CNN from a terrific reporter named Arwa Damon yesterday. She is one of a crop of young journalists who have truly figured out Iraq and work hard to tell the stories no one else is telling. Not a story she has put out hasn’t been educational for me.

Yesterday Arwa revealed the horrors found in the Adib al-Jumaili mosque in southwest Baghdad after it was abandoned by the JAM in May. She reports:

"There are the bloodstains on the wall, and here it is dried on the floor," Abu Muhanad said as he walked through a torture chamber in a Baghdad mosque where more than two dozen bodies have been found.

And here, a woman's shoes. She was a victim of the militia. We found her corpse in the grave."

Chunks of hair waft lazily across the floor in the hot Baghdad breeze.

"This was the torture room," said Muhanad, the leader of a U.S.-backed armed group that now controls the mosque.

"This is what they used for hanging," he said, pointing to a cord dangling from the ceiling.

The entire story is worth reading at CNN.com.

http://www.cnn.com/2008/WORLD/meast/08/19/iraq.mosque/index.html

But what really bothers me is when you compare this truth to the mythology around Muqtada al-Sadr and his movement in the US. I have had to read countless stories about how his followers were providing vital services that the Iraqi government wasn’t and how the people adored them and would rise up at a moments notice from his call.

The facts are startlingly different. Those vital services came at a price. The JAM controlled the services and forced taxes and fees on those they “served”. One of the most commont recurring themes we are hearing from Iraqis in Sadr City is how they are overjoyed to be able to afford cooking fuel and gas for their cars again now that the JAM isn’t controlling the distribution.

But my frustration comes to a boil in that Time magazine featured al-Sadr in their May special issue as one of the Time 100 Most Influential People in the World and the piece was stunningly authored by retired Lieutenant General Ricardo Sanchez, the former commander of coalition forces in Iraq.

He penned the piece just in time for the release of his book where he blames all of the failures that occurred under his command on everyone but himself. The profile of al-Sadr is no different as he blames the administration and CPA for the rise of the JAM and finishes with this telling paragraph:

“As a fierce opponent of what he calls "the American occupation," al-Sadr, 34, appeals to the poor Shi'ite masses and thereby controls the stability of southern Iraq. By turning up the level of violence at will, he is able to control the coalition war-fighting environment, disrupt Iraq's political progress and affect American public opinion. Today, as Iraq moves toward provincial elections, he is in a position to alter world events. He will inevitably continue as a major political power broker on the Iraq scene. But the die was cast in April 2004.”

http://www.time.com/time/specials/2007/article/0,28804,1733748_1733757_1735554,00.html

So here we have the former command of Coalition forces writing in May of this year how powerful al-Sadr is while at that very moment in Iraq his followers were torturing and murdering innocent Iraqis in his name. They found some 27 bodies buried in that mosque and our former leaders are painting this craven man as some sort of populist hero.

As that magazine hit the stands the JAM was being roundly defeated across Iraq by the rightful government of Iraq’s security forces in battle after battle they fell apart and melted away. They have become slinking back room toughs just like the every other group of thugs, criminals and terrorists in that country.

I wonder if Sanchez or any of the other “experts” will go back and recant their writings on the JAM and al-Sadr or will they just quietly hope those of us who know the truth will just forget?

One has to wonder.

Coming home and helping those who helped us

2008-08-13T12:24:00.004-04:00

I have finally sat down at my computer after a remarkable two weeks that has taken me from 18 hour work days in Baghdad all the way to my living room in Virginia. I am still sort of shaking off the shock of the transition. It is always so strange coming home from combat even though my combat is hardly the dangerous kind it once was.

It is a disconcerting feeling as you reinsert yourself into the lives of your family. There is a dance you do as you sort of watch how things are flowing...what are the new rules...what are the issues your wife is wrestling with...what are the hot buttons that need resolution and then try to put yourself back into the flow.

Sometimes it works...and sometimes you get yelled at for using the "F word" to punctuate too many sentences while explaining to your 15 year old son the error of his decision to throw three dirty towels all over his bathroom. This is the life of a soldier coming home.

Back in Iraq things are progressing ever more rapidly and ever more quietly as the stories have all but disappeared in the excitement of the Olympics and the Russians summer vacation in the Georgian countryside. I stumbled onto this interesting story from AFP that talks about efforts to assist translators and other refugees from Iraq who are caught in the middle of bureaucratic rules and silly obstacles.

It reminds me of one of my own translators who is still stuck in Syria trying to find a way out and hopefully to the US. Osaama was our units other translator in northern Iraq in 2003/2004. He fled the country after Bassam was kidnapped and murdered by AQI in the fall of 04 and has been bouncing around the globe since.

Officially I have heard every excuse in the book for why he can't be helped from providing proof he worked for us to not having worked long enough. I have resolved to help find a way out of that morass for him now that I am home again. This story has given me new hope it can be done after dancing with the rules for over three years.

The fact is that we cannot fail these brave Iraqis who have stepped up to work for us. They risked their lives to help us do our work and are indispensable partners in it.

In this picture...one of them is dead...and one of them waits for his turn and its all because they are in the picture at all.

From despair to hope via Google: US veterans help Iraqi refugees

by Karin Zeitvogel Karin Zeitvogel
Mon Aug 11

AMMAN (AFP) – It has been more than two years since Ali Salah arrived in Jordan, one refugee among hundreds of thousands who have fled the violence in Iraq.

Salah was forced to flee Iraq as months after the US-led invasion of Iraq, he volunteered to work with US troops as an interpreter, earning himself the hatred of some Iraqis who branded him an enemy collaborator.

"I felt I wasn't safe, and that meant that my family wasn't safe," said Salah, who worked with the Americans at the Al Waleed border crossing, which sits at the point where Jordan, Iraq and Syria meet.

Once in Jordan, Salah should have been fast-tracked for a visa to resettle in the United States under US policies which are supposed to ease the immigration process for those who worked alongside Americans during the war.

But instead, he was stonewalled by international officials and was even told that he never worked with US troops because he was unable to produce a US-issued badge that would provide proof in the eyes of official.

"When I arrived here, I went to the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) and talked to them about my case, but I had no proof that I had worked with the US army," Salah, using an assumed name for security reasons, told AFP.

"A year later, I lost the hope to start over. Things weren't moving, and I wondered what I could do," he said.

According to Iraqi officials, there are up to 450,000 refugees from Iraq in Jordan, while Jordanian officials put the figure at 750,000.

"We don't have any statistics but we consider there are between 400,000 and 450,000 refugees from Iraq here," said Thamir Salman, a minister plenipotentiary at the Iraqi embassy in Amman.

"Jordan's population of five million has grown by 750,000 with the arrival of the Iraqi refugees," said Nasser al-Ramadan, director of the office of the Jordanian Interior Minister.

Salah is one of those Iraqi refugees who, in the words of one official, "will never, ever be able to go back."

"Most refugees want to go home. Most don't want to go somewhere new and restart their lives," said the diplomat, who asked not to be named.

"At this time, most Iraqis in Jordan don't see a situation where they can return. And some will never, ever be able to go back," he said.

In Jordan, Salah and his family were living off their savings and the money they had made selling both their cars before leaving Iraq. The former customs officer and interpreter was sinking deeper into despair.

Then, he was thrown a lifeline via the Internet.

"I put the name of the American commanding officer I worked with at Al Waleed in Google and I couldn't believe it when I found him and saw his picture. I screamed to my brother: 'Look! It's Luis,'" Salah said

This week, Salah was reunited in Amman with former US Army captain Luis Montalvan, who retired from the army last year after 17 years' service and recently set up an association to help Iraqi refugees.

"If it weren't for you, many of my soldiers would have died," Montalvan said to Salah as the two men embraced, four years after they last saw each other in Iraq.

Montalvan was in Jordan on a mission for Iraq Veterans' Refugee Aid Association (IVRAA), the non-profit he founded with fellow Iraq veteran, former Marine captain Tyler Boudreau.

"We feel it's our nation's responsibility to help; IVRAA is a way to correct some mistakes," Montalvan said.

"I feel a bit responsible as a former military officer for some of the displacement of Iraqis," Boudreau said.

"This is one way of trying to do something," he added.

In Amman, the two former officers met with Jordanian government officials, Iraqi and American diplomats, and representatives from UN agencies and non-governmental organisations.

During a meeting at the US embassy, a state department official told Boudreau and Montalvan that "based on the documents presented to them, they believe Salah qualifies for the Special Immigration Visa because it's been shown he served as an interpreter for coalition forces," Montalvan told AFP.

The Special Immigration Visa for interpreters would speed up the application process and allow Salah to take his entire family with him to America.

"Now in the streets of Jordan, I walk like this," Salah said, hoisting up his elbows and swaggering in his seat.

"But sometimes I'm still afraid I will be sent back to Iraq. I always think about this. Always."

Suffering for their sins

2008-07-30T08:05:00.008-04:00

This is an interesting story about the fortunes of Muqtada Al-Sadr's Mehdi Army. We call them the Jaesh al-Mahdi or JAM because we love acronyms in the military. Anyone who knows me knows that I have been saying for three years that they are greatly overestimated in the US as far as their power base and popular support is concerned.

They had tried to be the Hezbollah of Iraq trying to take care of the people instead of the government and the media gleefully reported on their efforts while ignoring that the money to do these things came from extortion, blackmarketing, kidnapping and sponsorship from Iran.

The fact is that the JAM is a bunch of thugs who have turned to criminal acts to keep the people under their sway and line their pockets. They were always made up of out of work boys who wanted to be tough, wear blacks masks and carry guns. They are furtive little street gangsters and not a stand up army.

Their cease fire didn't occur in a vacuum. Sadr knows his people are splintering and he is desperately trying to hold it together by not having them eliminated by our tactics and the exponentially improved and confident Iraqi Security Forces.

I couldn't believe when Time magazine had him as one of the top 100 most influential people in the world while ignoring all the military leaders who have turned this mission around. The piece was written by a retired general while Sadr hides in Iran and his forces were systematically being obliterated every time they tried to stand and fight.

Now Sadr City is secured by the legitimate Iraqi government forces. Basra is peaceful and burgeoning. The ports are controlled by the Iraqi government instead of militia criminals and latest reports show that commerce through those ports has increased by over 200% since the Iraqis launched Charge of the Knights in March.

This isn't a coincidence. Its about better tactics. Its about not giving the criminals any rest or places to hide. Its about the Iraqi people being sick and tired of being abused and treated like pawns in their own neighborhoods.

Are we out of the woods yet? No way...absolutely not, but the sun is starting to shine through the limbs and seeds are starting to grow. Wolves still lurk in the shadows to take the innocent but the herd isn't just sitting waiting to be picked off anymore. The movement towards a new day is happening.

It has been an honor to watch the emergence of a new direction and its just good to see the world starting to hear the truth of what is happening on these ancient streets, the fertile marshes, the mountains, the beautiful fields of wheat and the hot desert wadis.

`Martyrs' List' tallies Mahdi Army's troubles

By BRIAN MURPHY and QASSIM ABDUL-ZAHRA, Associated Press WritersTue Jul 29, 8:18 PM ET

Loyalists within Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr's militia network call it the "martyrs' list," and it's long and growing: At least three dozen senior members killed in slayings or fighting since last summer and nearly 60 others detained.

The internal document — obtained by The Associated Press — offers a rare look at how the top echelon of the Mahdi Army militia is assessing the sustained blows to its once-mighty shadow state and the challenges to its absentee leader al-Sadr, who is holed up in Iran.

It also underscores the twin pressures on al-Sadr's followers.

Shiite rivals are waging gangland-style hits with diminishing fear of reprisals. Iraqi-led forces, meanwhile, are pressing their advantage against al-Sadr's weakened network — militia cells, quasi-civic groups and street-level operatives who have all crafted reputations as the champions of the Shiite poor.

Each chip in al-Sadr's power base seems to tip the scales a bit more in favor of Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki and his pro-American allies. Most important, the shifts give the government more confidence and room to widen its influence over Shiite politics, the key to control of the country.

As recently as this spring, the Mahdi Army still looked to be gaining ground on its dream of influencing Iraqi affairs the way Hezbollah exerts itself in Lebanon. Now, the al-Sadr leadership is penning more names onto its list and looking how to rebound.

The latest entry in the martyrs' list was July 18 after gunmen waited at a highway choke point to ambush Sheik Saffaa al-Lami, a midlevel al-Sadr functionary who headed the office in the New Baghdad neighborhood in the eastern part of the capital.

He joined 35 other names, including Riyadh al-Nouri, the director of al-Sadr's office in the southern city of Najaf — the spiritual and operational center of al-Sadr's forces where the Mahdi Army fought street-by-street battles with U.S. troops in 2004. Al-Nouri was gunned down in April as he returned from Friday prayers.

The list also has at least 58 midlevel to senior figures and militia commanders who have been detained by U.S. or Iraqi forces.

The al-Sadr leadership began the tally last summer to count perceived abuses after the Mahdi Army declared a shaky truce. Many of the incidents on the list were widely reported, but some could not be independently confirmed.

"No doubt we are facing pressures," Sheik Salah al-Obeidi, spokesman for the al-Sadr movement, told the AP. "Each time we are hit, it encourages others to do the same. But, I assure you, we are not going to break or disappear."

The Madhi Army has never released figures on its membership, but the Iraq Study Group in December 2006 estimated it could have ranged as high as 60,000 fighters. Defections and feuds suggest the current number is smaller.

The Iraqi government, meanwhile, also is gaining some breathing space on another front as al-Qaida in Iraq and other Sunni insurgents are down to only a few key footholds around Iraq.

So who is hunting the al-Sadr ranks?

The targeted slayings are widely blamed on power struggles between al-Sadr's militia and government-allied Shiite groups, which have been mostly absorbed into the security forces.

Meanwhile, al-Sadr's own foundations may be cracking.

Some factions are drifting into the government's fold before important provincial elections, which could come late this year. The mainline al-Sadr forces do not plan to field candidates.

"There is a perception of weakness around al-Sadr now and people will take advantage of that," said Marina Ottaway, director of the Middle East program at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace in Washington.

The Mahdi Army is also on its heels after a series of Iraqi-led offensives that began in March in the southern oil hub of Basra. It then spread to other al-Sadr strongholds, including Baghdad's Sadr City — named for the cleric's father.

The security forces said the main target was breakaway militia groups backed by Iran and not the regular Mahdi Army. But the net effect left the Madhi Army uprooted in its main areas.

Al-Sadr, however, has been an outside observer from the Iranian seminary city of Qom since last year. His aides say he is engaged in religious study. But his absence from Iraq has opened speculation that Tehran could want to bolster ties with al-Makiki and doesn't want the firebrand al-Sadr in the mix.

Al-Obeidi would not elaborate on al-Sadr's self-exile. But he acknowledged: "It encourages our enemies."

No military commander is ready to dismiss the chance of a Mahdi Army resurgence. But its current trajectory shows how much — and how rapidly — its fortunes have changed.

The ambush of Sheik al-Lami offers something of a roadmap to the Madhi Army's diminished grip.

Until about May, the New Baghdad district where he was killed was fully under the control of Mahdi Army checkpoints and patrols that flew banners of al-Sadr. Iraqi forces now move through the area at will.

At his funeral procession, a few hardline Mahdi Army militants chanted against the Iraqi military, calling them occupiers. A shopkeeper, who gave his name only as Ahmed, watched the cortege and dismissed it with a wave of his hand.

"The Mahdi Army acted like kings here and not like helpers of the people," he complained.

Ahmed — still too fearful of Madhi Army backers to give his full name — said the al-Sadr network had controlled nearly everything from the price of cooking fuel to what type of displays appeared in store windows. He put up a poster of al-Sadr to avoid any trouble.

In many places around Baghdad, the former swagger of al-Sadr's followers has given way to worries about trying to hold the movement together.

On Friday in Sadr City, an imam finished prayers by chastising members of al-Sadr's bloc in parliament for appearing to abandon the former Mahdi Army strongholds.

"They stay away like they are strangers," said Sattar al-Battat. "Either they rally to our side or we should cast them off."

Oh...that's why its so quiet these days

2008-07-27T02:10:00.002-04:00

This is one heck of a thought piece from two terrific journalists who have watched this thing closer and longer than I have. I have a lot of respect for both of these writers and this is a long but truly insightful piece on what is going on here.

It isn't the number of troops that the surge represented...it was the change in strategy and the accompanying psychological effects of a reinvigorated coalition effort. There are now over180,000 more Iraqi Security Forces than there were when the surge was announced. That is a lot of folks to hold what we have cleared.

Long article but well worth reading to understand how dramatically this country has changed.

Analysis: US now winning Iraq war that seemed lost

By ROBERT BURNS and ROBERT H. REID, Associated Press Writers

Sat Jul 26, 10:45 PM ET

The United States is now winning the war that two years ago seemed lost. Limited, sometimes sharp fighting and periodic terrorist bombings in Iraq are likely to continue, possibly for years. But the Iraqi government and the U.S. now are able to shift focus from mainly combat to mainly building the fragile beginnings of peace — a transition that many found almost unthinkable as recently as one year ago.

Despite the occasional bursts of violence, Iraq has reached the point where the insurgents, who once controlled whole cities, no longer have the clout to threaten the viability of the central government.

That does not mean the war has ended or that U.S. troops have no role in Iraq. It means the combat phase finally is ending, years past the time when President Bush optimistically declared it had. The new phase focuses on training the Iraqi army and police, restraining the flow of illicit weaponry from Iran, supporting closer links between Baghdad and local governments, pushing the integration of former insurgents into legitimate government jobs and assisting in rebuilding the economy.

Scattered battles go on, especially against al-Qaida holdouts north of Baghdad. But organized resistance, with the steady drumbeat of bombings, kidnappings, assassinations and ambushes that once rocked the capital daily, has all but ceased.

This amounts to more than a lull in the violence. It reflects a fundamental shift in the outlook for the Sunni minority, which held power under Saddam Hussein. They launched the insurgency five years ago. They now are either sidelined or have switched sides to cooperate with the Americans in return for money and political support.

Gen. David Petraeus, the top U.S. commander in Iraq, told The Associated Press this past week there are early indications that senior leaders of al-Qaida may be considering shifting their main focus from Iraq to the war in Afghanistan.

Ryan Crocker, the U.S. ambassador to Iraq, told the AP on Thursday that the insurgency as a whole has withered to the point where it is no longer a threat to Iraq's future.

"Very clearly, the insurgency is in no position to overthrow the government or, really, even to challenge it," Crocker said. "It's actually almost in no position to try to confront it. By and large, what's left of the insurgency is just trying to hang on."

Shiite militias, notably the Mahdi Army of radical cleric Muqtada al-Sadr, have lost their power bases in Baghdad, Basra and other major cities. An important step was the routing of Shiite extremists in the Sadr City slums of eastern Baghdad this spring — now a quiet though not fully secure district.

Al-Sadr and top lieutenants are now in Iran. Still talking of a comeback, they are facing major obstacles, including a loss of support among a Shiite population weary of war and no longer as terrified of Sunni extremists as they were two years ago.

Despite the favorable signs, U.S. commanders are leery of proclaiming victory or promising that the calm will last.

The premature declaration by the Bush administration of "Mission Accomplished" in May 2003 convinced commanders that the best public relations strategy is to promise little, and couple all good news with the warning that "security is fragile" and that the improvements, while encouraging, are "not irreversible."

Iraq still faces a mountain of problems: sectarian rivalries, power struggles within the Sunni and Shiite communities, Kurdish-Arab tensions, corruption. Any one of those could rekindle widespread fighting.

But the underlying dynamics in Iraqi society that blew up the U.S. military's hopes for an early exit, shortly after the fall of Baghdad in April 2003, have changed in important ways in recent months.

Systematic sectarian killings have all but ended in the capital, in large part because of tight security and a strategy of walling off neighborhoods purged of minorities in 2006.

That has helped establish a sense of normalcy in the streets of the capital. People are expressing a new confidence in their own security forces, which in turn are exhibiting a newfound assertiveness with the insurgency largely in retreat.

Statistics show violence at a four-year low. The monthly American death toll appears to be at its lowest of the war — four killed in action so far this month as of Friday, compared with 66 in July a year ago. From a daily average of 160 insurgent attacks in July 2007, the average has plummeted to about two dozen a day this month. On Wednesday the nationwide total was 13.

Beyond that, there is something in the air in Iraq this summer.

In Baghdad, parks are filled every weekend with families playing and picnicking with their children. That was unthinkable only a year ago, when the first, barely visible signs of a turnaround emerged.

Now a moment has arrived for the Iraqis to try to take those positive threads and weave them into a lasting stability.

The questions facing both Americans and Iraqis are: What kinds of help will the country need from the U.S. military, and for how long? The questions will take on greater importance as the U.S. presidential election nears, with one candidate pledging a troop withdrawal and the other insisting on staying.

Iraqi authorities have grown dependent on the U.S. military after more than five years of war. While they are aiming for full sovereignty with no foreign troops on their soil, they do not want to rush. In a similar sense, the Americans fear that after losing more than 4,100 troops, the sacrifice could be squandered.

U.S. commanders say a substantial American military presence will be needed beyond 2009. But judging from the security gains that have been sustained over the first half of this year — as the Pentagon withdrew five Army brigades sent as reinforcements in 2007 — the remaining troops could be used as peacekeepers more than combatants.

As a measure of the transitioning U.S. role, Maj. Gen. Jeffery Hammond says that when he took command of American forces in the Baghdad area about seven months ago he was spending 80 percent of his time working on combat-related matters and about 20 percent on what the military calls "nonkinetic" issues, such as supporting the development of Iraqi government institutions and humanitarian aid.

Now Hammond estimates those percentage have been almost reversed. For several hours one recent day, for example, Hammond consulted on water projects with a Sunni sheik in the Radwaniyah area of southwest Baghdad, then spent time with an Iraqi physician/entrepreneur in the Dora district of southern Baghdad — an area, now calm, that in early 2007 was one of the capital's most violent zones.

"We're getting close to something that looks like an end to mass violence in Iraq," says Stephen Biddle, an analyst at the Council of Foreign Relations who has advised Petraeus on war strategy. Biddle is not ready to say it's over, but he sees the U.S. mission shifting from fighting the insurgents to keeping the peace.

Although Sunni and Shiite extremists are still around, they have surrendered the initiative and have lost the support of many ordinary Iraqis. That can be traced to an altered U.S. approach to countering the insurgency — a Petraeus-driven move to take more U.S. troops off their big bases and put them in Baghdad neighborhoods where they mixed with ordinary Iraqis and built a new level of trust.

Army Col. Tom James, a brigade commander who is on his third combat tour in Iraq, explains the new calm this way:

"We've put out the forest fire. Now we're dealing with pop-up fires."

It's not the end of fighting. It looks like the beginning of a perilous peace.

Maj. Gen. Ali Hadi Hussein al-Yaseri, the chief of patrol police in the capital, sees the changes.

"Even eight months ago, Baghdad was not today's Baghdad," he says.

___

EDITOR'S NOTE — Robert Burns is AP's chief military reporter, and Robert Reid is AP's chief of bureau in Baghdad. Reid has covered the war from his post in Iraq since the U.S. invasion in March 2003. Burns, based in Washington, has made 21 reporting trips to Iraq; on his latest during July, Burns spent nearly three weeks in central and northern Iraq, observing military operations and interviewing both U.S. and Iraqi officers.

Brutal Randomness

2008-07-24T19:02:00.006-04:00

I had quite the little morning pick me up as I arrived at work today. Just after I stepped from my vehicle the alarms went off signaling incoming rockets and I had to sprint to the nearest bunker sweating with four other winded people.

You can look around those bunkers and see the veterans from their eyes. Those of us with years of ducking and covering have a sort of relaxed air of inconvenience. On the other hand those who are recent arrivals have a nervous sort of fidgeting as we wait for the boom signaling the uninvited guest’s arrival or the all clear.

That is how living under indirect fire is. I call it brutal randomness because there is no scientific way of telling where the things will land really. My command lost two great officers while they were working out a couple of months ago. They were just two guys trying to stay in shape and one came through the roof and took them out.

It makes for a strange life sometimes. You find yourself constantly on hyper alert listening for the screaming alarm or the telling whizzing sound of a round passing over head. At the height of the shelling in April and May you could hardly go anywhere without constantly being aware of where the next bunker was in a bizarre life and death game of musical chairs. You didn’t want to be outside when the music stopped playing in that round.

I remember the first time I got rocketed back in mid-2003. I was in my office in the old wrecked officers club of our base south of Mosul. I was chatting away with my wife on Yahoo IM when I heard the first distant thud. It took a moment to realize what I was hearing and then they started slamming into the ground not a half kilometer from our building—and marching towards us.

I hastily told my bride I had to go. You know.."BRB!" Being the ever inquisitive type that she is she kept asking me “why?” I finally just said “I have to take cover since we are getting rocketed! Can I go now?” Needless to say she was more accommodating in the future.

But the mental impact of that life becomes weirdly ingrained and manifests itself in the oddest ways. We would often be sitting in staff meetings or other discussions and hear that distant thump of a round being launched. The conversation would stop as everyone sort of cocked an ear to see where they would land. They would hit somewhere away with the distinctive kerchunk and once we figured it wasn’t coming our way conversation would resume.

Back at home I discovered that the sound of a door slamming on other floors of our house was oddly similar to the distant thump of a mortar or rocket launch and would catch myself stopping to listen for the kerchunk. My wife got so used to this odd tick that she got in the habit of just saying “it’s a door” and I would shake my head and go back to what we were doing.

I bet this war has made a whole generation of men and women who are skittish as hell. We all have our strange little ticks like always reaching to feel for your missing sidearm as you head out the door to run errands. All you can do is shake your head and move on hoping no one notices your lapse of reason.

Yet, my wife still just tosses over her shoulder, without a blink, “you don’t need a gun for the grocery store” and keeps going out the door.

I guess it’s good that those closest to you can forgive your little insanities. A random life has its price I suppose.

(Pictures are of the old building in Ninawa and my lovely bride and I on a cruise after OIF 1)

Sounds of Freedom

2008-07-18T08:51:00.004-04:00

You know we in the military often make jokes when a jet or helicopter comes screaming over with a smile that the thundering noise is the sound of freedom. I always found it a bit amusing because I am a sucker for that stuff and for most of my career I was the one making the noise. But I think my opinion is changing in an odd way these days. I think the real sound of freedom might be angry voices raised in protest.

As we walked back from lunch today on our base on the very edge of the International Zone we could hear pretty clearly the loudspeaker of the mosque that is a few blocks away from our FOB. Typically you can hear the call to prayer as it rings out several times a day with that eerie sort of otherworldly sing song that is quite beautiful and serves as the background music to your life here.

Today though we heard a different sound floating from the speakers as an excited voice was calling out and barking short bursts of sentences over the clear noise of a large crowd of yelling and cheering voices. We realized we were hearing a pretty big demonstration.

I didn’t have Aida my cultural advisor in tow so I have no idea what they were saying but chances are better than even it was a protest about the Status of Forces Agreement negotiations. They have been staging pretty regular protests after Friday services to argue for Iraqi sovereignty and whatever the latest crazy rumor is about the points in the agreement. The sizes of the crowds have varied from just a few hundred to several thousand.

What makes it the sound of freedom is the sound that was missing. Gunfire. You didn’t hear any explosions or weapons being discharged at all. We heard yelling and cheering. That’s a good piece of what democracy is about in my opinion. It is the victory of voices over guns and the clash of ideas over the clash of arms. When that battle is won is when freedom and democracy takes hold in a nation.

I remember distinctly one of my very first “goat grab” lunches in Ninawa province in 2003 where we found ourselves talking about freedom. Typically I would end up in a long mud walled room surrounded by farmers and huge platters of rice, vegetables and lamb with a sort of hanging dust cloud and talking about how different our worlds were.

This one particular time we had slipped into a conversation on the meaning of freedom. Dr. Mohammed, my brother in all of my efforts in his area, explained in a memorable way what freedom meant to an Iraqi after living under an authoritarian regime for 35 years.

To an Iraqi, he explained, freedom meant doing whatever he wants without oppression. “If you steal from me, I will get my gun and kill you, and no one can stop me. That is freedom after living under Saddam.” I was at a loss for words after living in a representative democracy for my entire life.

Five years later I stood in our courtyard listening to a bit of “American style” freedom in action without any pesky shooting. After all while you may watch the news and think the Iraqis are ungrateful or that these protests are a sign of failure somehow, most of us here who have seen the arc of things see it as a sign of progress and growth in our partners democracy.

My guys and I looked at each other, shrugged and said “sounds like the sound of freedom to me” and went back to work.

I guess when you are at war angry voices sound a lot better than gunfire.

(The photo is of Dr. Mohammed and me in July 2003 during one of our many lunch lessons)

Finding Inspiration in Tears of Joy

2008-07-15T06:49:00.011-04:00

This is a different Iraq than the one I left two years ago in so many ways. I am constantly surprised this trip when something subtle points to such an obvious change. It is often only much later that you recognize the measure of what you have witnessed and often it’s the absence of things such as explosions and small arms fire in the distance that point to the progress having been made.

Then there are times when the change hits you across the forehead like a 2x4. Yesterday I found inspiration in the tears of joy on hundreds of faces at the graduation for the Iraqi Military Academy at Rustimiyah as 252 young men graduated from the one year course of instruction and were commissioned as 2nd Lieutenants in the Iraqi Army and Air Force.

From the moment we arrived with a herd of media to assist the Iraqis in handling the event you could feel an electric air of anticipation in the atmosphere of the gymnasium. The cadets patiently stood in formation while subtly itching and squirming to get it over with. The stands were overflowing with their families and friends frantically waving as they spotted their sons, brothers and friends in the formation.

No one complained as the gym heated up in the desert afternoon as we awaited the arrival of the Minister of Defense and General Petraeus. Their helicopters hit the helipad and the ceremony kicked off with a bang as the entire corps of cadets sang the Iraqi national anthem, which on its own is a powerful song, but when sung by almost a thousand young soldiers at the tops of their lungs with joy and pride you can’t help but feel a chill along the back of your neck without needing to understand a single word.

As soon as the formation marched forward to the graduation line the candy started raining down. It is an Arabic tradition to give sweets at joyous occasions and at the military academy graduations this has taken the form of handfuls of candy being flung from the stands by women at the cadets and all of us gathered on the floor. I have never seen such huge smiles on Iraqi faces in my five years here. One wonderful older woman had a huge purse which she emptied at all of us on the floor before giving me a wink and transitioning to a basket at her side with another barrage.

Everyone waited patiently through the speeches where Minister of Defense Abdul Qadir told the young men that the most important medal they will ever wear on their chests was the trust of all of the Iraqi people and General Petraeus exhorted them to lead the new democratic Iraq with their proud example.

But with the last note of the second playing of the national anthem absolute mayhem broke out. The crowd poured out of the stands as my team and I desperately tried to extract the media from the crush. Everywhere around us men and women alike were crying and grabbing their sons before pulling their cadet epaulets off their shoulders to put the single star of an Iraqi Army or Air Force 2nd Lieutenant in its place.

The Iraqi Army band played a series of songs which were often no more than a pounding of drums while families danced in circles around their boys or the graduates hoisted their buddies on their shoulders to bounce and cheer in unison. I watched a poor little four year old boy in the tiniest suit being held aloft as at least 20 new officers danced and cheered “Victory for Baghdad” over and over and handed him from one to another wet faced man.

We all just sort of stood there and soaked up the energy and passion. This is where Iraq is today. These families, rich and poor, Sunni and Shia, young and old were overcome with pride for their sons becoming officers of the new Iraq.

It wasn’t because they would be getting a regular pay check. Not because there is nothing else to do. These men have committed themselves to building a new democratic Iraq and the sheer joy and pride of their families tells even the most jaded observer, including a couple of veteran western journalists in my group, that something has shifted here that can’t be ignored.

You could not stand on that hot gymnasium floor covered with crushed candy and dancing Iraqis and not be inspired.

I haven’t shaken the chill up my spine even today.

(All photos in this post are courtesy of Warrick Page of The National newspaper in the UAE or MC1 William Lovelady...thanks guys!)

A Gentle Descent into Peace Perhaps

2008-07-14T13:36:00.002-04:00

I haven't been big on hanging news stories on here but the story below struck me in so many ways. Not the least of which is that it is from the Associated Press which has been decidedly skeptical of all things seeming to smell of progress here over the years. Nothing wrong with that really as there are many good reasons to be skeptical. But, there is so much change here now.

I can't tell you how many reporters I have talked to whom I have known from previous tours and we all say the same thing. "Its so wierd how dramatically different things are here now". I mean consistently we are all remarking about how things just feel safer and quieter.

Is it the calm before the storm or the beginning of sustainable security? I ask the question every day. I do believe very strongly that peace begets peace. I believe that human nature is that where as we get used to the idea of being safe in our neighborhoods and living a normal life again that we will resist those forces that wish to drag us back to the past. I think a lot of Iraqis are done with living in fear.

Check out this article for a little window on our world here in Baghdad. I spent a night in the Palestine Hotel on July 4th, 2003. My first interview on CNN was a live shot on the roof of the hotel with my family in the studio in Atlanta. I went downstairs to call them and a firefight broke out while I huddled next to the wall chatting away on the satellite phone and convincing Crystal that it was just fireworks as the tracers arced across the yard. Lovely memories.

The picture above is from the graduation today of 232 new Iraqi Army and Air Force officers from the Iraqi Military Academy at Rustimiyah. I attended with a herd of media and it was just inspiring. This little boy was just too sweet not to take a picture with him.

A gentle descent to Baghdad's airport
By CHRISTOPHER TORCHIA

Associated Press Writer

The corkscrew landing is a rite of passage for travelers to Iraq, who feel the pull of gravity as their airplane makes a rapid, spiraling descent to avoid ground fire.

So it was a surprise to one periodic visitor last week when the Royal Jordanian Airlines aircraft from Amman descended into Baghdad International Airport with the same lack of drama as any commuter flight anywhere. No sudden plunge, no tight rotation, no straightening out the flight path just before the runway.

It didn't feel like flying into a war zone anymore.

The absence — on a number of recent civilian flights, at least — of the "corkscrew" maneuver is a measure of how security has improved in Iraq. Back in November 2003, a missile hit a DHL cargo jet just after takeoff. The pilot managed to land safely.

Iraq is still very dangerous. The poisonous legacy of the sectarian war between Sunnis and Shiites could last generations. More people will die in bombings and shootings.

But the debate, for now, is no longer about whether the country is heading toward civil war, or already in one. Rather, it is about whether Iraq has turned a corner toward stability, or is in a quiet spell before another bout of bloodletting.

In other words, can it hold?

The numbers look good (for a country as violent as Iraq): attacks at their lowest level in four years, casualties of Iraqis and U.S. soldiers down, oil production and revenues up.
There is also a new feeling that, while less easy to quantify, is no less important.

Even for a visitor restricted in movements because of security concerns, the improvement is evident in talks with Iraqis.

"It's good" or "It's better" is a common remark. Simple, guarded, but succinct. After five years of war, the people who say it should know. It is hard to find an Iraqi who has not been touched by conflict: a relative or friend killed or kidnapped, a family displaced or destitute.

In nearly a week, the only gunfire heard in a neighborhood near the International Zone — home to Iraqi government offices and the U.S. Embassy — was from a police firing range. Only one explosion. Two months ago, Shiite militants were firing mortars almost nightly into the zone.
The clatter of U.S. military helicopters, and even the roar of U.S. jet fighters, used to be a constant distraction. No longer. One recent night, a helicopter belonging to the Blackwater security group flew in circles over neighborhoods along the Tigris river.

Al-Sabah, a state-owned newspaper, reflects the confidence of a government that has benefited from the U.S. troop surge in 2007, the revolt of Sunni groups against al-Qaida in Iraq and the withdrawal of many Shiite militia groups.

"Their base is weaker than a spider web," reads the caption on a half-page advertisement that boasts of gains against the Iraqi wing of al-Qaida, which means "the base" in Arabic. The phrase is a play on a Koranic verse that remarks on the weakness of the unfaithful.

One war survivor is the 18-story Palestine Hotel, a Baghdad landmark badly damaged when a truck bomb exploded near the front entrance in 2005. The once-gaudy, top-floor bar with a panoramic view is now layered in thick dust and fragments of glass.

A breeze filters through the blown-out windows, a relief from the furnace of a Baghdad summer. Below, a splash of green is visible along the Tigris, a contrast with the steely haze and dusty hue of the city. It's a new park with winding paths, children's slides and swings and two swimming pools under construction; for years, the area was a wasteland patrolled by wild dogs.

The faded lobby of the Palestine is clean, and single rooms that cost $60 four years ago now go for $100. The national bowling team trains once a week at a two-lane alley in the complex, where photographs of Iraq's 1980s-era bowling champions are still on display.

Many things are the same in Iraq: the blast walls that crisscross Baghdad in a maze of concrete, the military signs that say "Use of Deadly Force is Authorized," the checkpoints, including 48 alone on the road to Karbala, 60 miles south of the capital.

The same kind of passengers as always flew for 90 minutes from Amman to Baghdad last week. Most were security contractors, one with a T-shirt that said: "And the skulls of my enemies will be piled at my feet as trophies."

But no corkscrew landing.

Death Threats and Bad Memories

2008-07-06T14:30:00.006-04:00

I heard a familiar tale today that flooded me with memories of a great man and a tragic death. Each time an American dies AP quickly puts up a story about what number the person is and their picture is framed in papers around the country. But each day here brave Iraqis die just trying to make a living and supporting the Coalition’s efforts to bring peace to this ancient land.

The flashback started when my current translator came to tell me that he had once again been threatened in his neighborhood. This time a group of armed men had appeared at his mother’s door and told her that they knew he was a spy and they were going to come back and kill him. It was probably the third or fourth time this has happened. Each time nothing has happened as he convinces them he is not a spy but the fear is taking a heavy toll on him. The constant fear that it’s just a matter of time until the clock runs out is an almost impossible burden for anyone to bear.

I stood there in our dim hallway with the cold feeling of memories best forgotten. I was taken back to another time and the way these things often end in tragedy. I remember almost viscerally the tunnel vision and darkness that enveloped me in my office at Ft. Campbell in September of 2004 when I opened the email that told me that Bassam, my interpreter and friend from my first tour, had been kidnapped and then subsequently beheaded by Al Qaeda.

It sounds so simple and brutal writing that sentence. Kidnapped and beheaded. But the story of the man who kept me going when I wanted to quit, kept me out of trouble when I said something stupid and in many ways. both literal and figurative. had my back for 10 months in northern Iraq is so much more than that sentence.

Bassam and I met as we were just getting our mission of conducting civil affairs around our base in Ninewa province rolling. I had arrived at what was once Saddam Air Force Base 30 kilometers south of Mosul in late April and by mid-May we were invited to visit the local villages and help them. Linking up with the man who would become my other Iraqi brother, Dr. Mohammed, I found myself desperately in need of a reliable interpreter.

The 101st hired one for every unit and I went to our higher headquarters to meet the group. As soon as I arrived a tall man with a scruffy three day beard, buzz cut and eerie resemblance to Uday Hussein walked up to me and stuck out his hand. I made the acquaintance of Bassam Sabry Yousef and hired him on the spot.

An Iraqi Christian who grew up in Mosul and graduated with two degrees from Mosul University as well as owning a small store right near the school, Bassam was exactly what I needed to take my operations to the next level.

I told him that his job was not just to translate the words but keep me out of trouble culturally, teach me the nuances of what I was doing and serve as my eyes and ears on those things I wasn’t supposed to hear.

He did it perfectly. Gently coaching me on the alien culture I found myself immersed in almost daily while traipsing from village to village, eating sheep and drinking tea. Bassam would humbly smile and dip his chin shaking his head at the stupid things I said that he would have to put in words that were appropriate.

I often gave him trouble because I would say “yes” and it would take him two or three minutes in Arabic. I mean how hard is it to just say “yes” for Christ’s sake? He would just shake his head at me and smile.

I learned safety from him. One day in the far southern part of our sector in an area that was well known as a Baathist stronghold we were invited by a new Sheik to visit his village. I told Bassam to explain that we would be there at 2:00 the next Thursday.

He shook his head and said “no…this is a bad idea”. I was not in the mood for a lesson at the time as it was about 115 degrees and we had been going all day. I reemphasized my answer to him and told him that the village would be slaughtering a lamb for us and they needed to know when we would be there.

He again shook his head and explained operational security to the dumb Army officer by saying “It is better the sheep gets cold, than we get killed. I will tell them the afternoon.” I just smiled and said “point taken…thanks.”

I would wear him out each day (see photo) and then he would drive all the way back to Mosul and attend to his store as a cover for his work with us. Then he would go home to his wife and beloved two toddler daughters.

I went home in February, 2004 but stayed in touch with the unit that took over for us. I exchanged emails and calls with Dr. Mohammed and Bassam. Then in late September came the word that Bassam had been threatened for two weeks but refused to quit until he finished helping them buy studen desks and supplies for the newest school they had completed.

The terrorists came to his store with masks and dragged him out into the street to never been seen again. They found his beheaded body three days later and CD’s of his execution were distributed in the market.

The AQI terrorists took his cell phone and called every number telling anyone who answered they were next. Our other interpreter fled for his life and Bassam’s wife and daughters would hide for six months with relatives until we could successfully get them safely to the US where they joined her relatives already here.

He gave his life for his country just as much as any of my brothers and sisters has done for ours. He sacrificed to give his family a better life. Today my translator goes home in fear every night for the same reasons and then comes to work with a smile. I mentioned last week my craving for Iraqi sweets and the next Saturday came a pan as big as my desk of assorted baklava and treats from the best bakery in eastern Baghdad.

I ask him what we can do for him and he just shrugs his shoulders. We will try to find him a place to live in the International Zone but in the end his family and his life are out there and he has to keep plugging away.

On the wall in our headquarters are the pictures of the brave soldiers, sailors, airmen, Marines, civilians and contractors we have lost in the last four years--and one linguist. I hope we don’t add any more pictures.

You won’t see the AP keeping count of those brave Iraqi souls that give their lives for their new democracy but those of us have served with them are keeping count and they aren’t just numbers to us.

Sunday with the National Police

2008-06-30T17:42:00.007-04:00

How does an organization go from being a feared sectarian enforcer to a highly regarded part of the national security forces of a country? I was wondering the same thing when I got back to Iraq in April. The Ministry of Interior’s National Police had been recommended for disbanding last year by a commission from the US but the government of Iraq decided to give it a last chance. It looks like that idea is working and I got a chance to check it out last Sunday.

When I first arrived to my unit in early 2005 one of the Iraqi organizations I heard about the most was the Police Commandos and I was pretty impressed by what I was hearing. They were a part of the MoI and focused on providing a deployable national level paramilitary police force to react to hot spots.

They had formed on their own in the summer of 2004 at an abandoned air base in Baghdad. We sent out some officers to check them out. These little “pop-up” units had been appearing pretty regularly as a mini-militia for various sheiks and politicians who styled themselves generals. Usually we just ignored them until they disbanded on their own harmlessly, recruited the members into the military or police or actually ordered their dissolution.

What impressed our team when they went out to investigate this bunch was the fact that when other “pop-up” units formed the first thing they built was an office for the “general” in charge. Not the Commandos. They had built an Arms Room first and the members were out training instead of looking like thugs with guns.

The decision was made to let them stew for a while and see what came of them. In a few weeks it became apparent that they were the real deal so they were folded into the Ministry of Interior. In no time they were in the fight and ended up deploying to Fallujah, Najaf and Mosul in the worst of the deadly fighting of the fall of 2004.

One of the first stories I heard was the legendary November 2004 battle of “4 West” in Mosul when a Commando Quick Reaction Force accompanied by their advisor Colonel Jim Coffman moving to relieve a police station under siege was ambushed by dozens of insurgents firing rockets and small arms. Pinned down in culverts next to the city streets and taking devastating casualties they would fight a four hour gun battle until relieved by US forces.

During the fight over half of the force would become casualties including Coffman who would fight with weapons taken from the wounded with his non-shooting hand after getting shot in his good one. His incredible bravery that day would lead to his receipt of the Distinguished Service Cross, our second highest award for bravery.

Incidentally, after taking nearly 60% casualties the unit went back out on patrol the next day.

I actually had the opportunity to spend some time with them up in Samarra for about three days in November 2005. I was impressed by what I found up there. They had just captured a major Al Qaeda facilitator and had interrogated him with kindness and he was singing like a bird.

But, by the late fall of 2005 there were increasingly troubling rumors coming from the field. Talk of after hour’s missions after their transition teams left to take out opponents of the government or ethno-sectarian killings and torture were popping on our radar pretty regularly. One of their detainment facilities would be raided by US forces where dozens of neglected prisoners and implements of abuse were found.

By last year the government was asking if they should bother keeping the organization at all which had by then become known as the National Police. But the Minister of Interior believed there was still a crucial roll to play for a national level police force like the French Gendarme and with new leadership and training they could be turned around.

The new commander, Major General Hussein, came in like a lion and the firings were pretty substantial. Nearly every commander from the top down was kicked out including every division and brigade commander and over half of the battalions. They then partnered with NATO to bring in the famed Italian national police, the Caribinieri. to begin training the forces a unit at a time.

So, whole brigades were rotated off the line for “re-bluing”, as we call it in the military which included a set of training programs in professionalism, human rights, policing in a democracy and the rule of law. This was followed by the establishment of what has become known simply as Carabinieri Training for whole battalions at a time.

They spend eight weeks under the watchful eye of Italian and Iraqi instructors working on the professional skills of a policeman in a democracy. They come out the other end thoroughly vetted and trained in the important fundamentals of policing with the special tactics of rapid reaction police forces.

So, last Sunday was the graduation of the fourth Carabinieri class at the National Police Academy outside of Baghdad in a palm shaded little base on the edge of town. I went out with our NATO partners to provide a helping hand herding the media and riding shotgun on the Rhino armored bus. We arrived and I found the nicest Iraqi training camp I have ever seen. Spotless streets and impeccably organized paths leading to a headquarters bedecked in national pride.

The graduation itself ended up being quite a demonstration of the unique skills the Italian National Police bring to this effort. It took place right in the street outside the headquarters as the NP’s marched by in formation and a line of vehicles brought up the rear. They really looked like pros.

Any soldier will tell you that you sort of develop a sixth sense for sizing people up in this line of work. I have learned after 25 years in a military uniform how to look a man in the eyes, watch his movements and see how he carries himself and from that observation get a pretty good measure of the professional within.

What I saw was some real pros parade by us and execute some interesting demos from pulling over a vehicle and searching it, to dignitary protection, hostage rescue and riot control. I honestly don’t think I saw a “show” at all. I saw young men who want to serve their country with pride and their chins held high.

After surviving the 110 degree heat and chasing the Iraqi media back on the bus for the convoy I settled down with a monster water bottle for the ride back to the IZ. I was dozing in the front seat of the Rhino thinking that I just saw a really remarkable thing. From nearly being thrown out completely a year ago to now hearing reports about provincial governors fighting each other to get their own National Police units assigned in their regions.

Like everything in Iraq it’s far from perfect still. Old habits die hard and constant vigilance is needed to stamp out the pockets of misbehavior but I also think that any democracy needs men with steel in their spines. I keep finding more and more of them here this tour.

Getting Schooled

2008-06-20T17:17:00.004-04:00

I had the unique experience this week of getting taken to the back of the wood shed by an Iraqi general that I found sad but also in many ways hopeful. I tried to help an old friend from the Iraqi Army who is losing his job and I ended up getting a lesson in the new Iraq.

When I was here the first time in 2003 I was introduced by my friend Dr. Mohammed to his uncle Sheik Raad. He was a really impressive guy whose village straddled an oil pipeline and electrical lines heading to Mosul. In short order we hired him and his villagers to secure those lines and they did brilliantly.

After I left and things went to hell in Mosul in the fall of 2004, Raad and his tribesman secured the area when the local Iraqi National Guard unit virtually collapsed. For his bravery he was appointed by the local US unit as the new battalion commander of that ING battalion and he has managed to stay in command all the way until now almost 4 years later through multiple assassination attempts and the assumption of the ING into the regular Iraqi Army in 2005.

The problem is that Raad is one of the last of those US appointed officers still in the new Iraqi Army. He was an enlisted man in the Iran-Iraq war and hadn’t attended any of the military academies or professional schools the Iraqi Army prides itself on. He was a commander through sheer bravery and unflappable focus on securing his area.

On Monday he called unexpectedly to tell me he was in Baghdad. I grabbed my cultural advisor, Aida, and we dashed over to the Iraqi Joint Headquarters personnel department. I found Raad pacing the hallway and we were able to dig from him that it seemed he had been relieved of his command and summoned to Baghdad for follow on assignment. He had been waiting for a couple of hours and it was getting late.

I grabbed one of my fellow advisors who worked there and he took the bull by the horns and marched us into the Iraqi general in charge of officer assignments. He was very kind at the intrusion and invited us to sit and have some chai. So, Raad and I sat across from each other in front of the general’s desk in his smoky office with Aida sitting just behind me to whisper the translation in my ear.

He asked us what we were there for and Raad spoke first explaining how he had gotten orders assigning him to Baghdad and was confused by what they wanted. With our tea delivered in the tiny glasses with a quarter inch of sugar on the bottom, I explained to him my relationship with Raad and how I owed so much to him and the work he did with me over the years. I said he was one of the bravest men I have ever met.

The general asked me what I wanted him to do with Raad. I told him I just wanted him to be taken care of for his incredible service to the country of Iraq. I sort of knew the days of him commanding his still all Sunni battalion were probably over at this point. Times are changing but I just didn’t want him thrown out into the streets.

The general asked me and my advisor to step outside while he talked at length to Raad. We overheard him asking why Raad thought he deserved to be a commander since he didn’t attend the military academy, hadn’t gone to any military schools and hadn’t rose up through the ranks. I felt it was impolite to eavesdrop on my friend so we slipped outside so Aida could have a cigarette and I could chat with the other US advisors working over there.

Shortly, we were summoned back by the general and I wasn’t offered a chair this time. With Aida interpreting he told me that he truly appreciated my standing up for my friend. He respected my opinion but then proceeded to explain to me that the new Iraqi Army is a professional force. That as a professional officer myself who had risen through the ranks for 20 years to reach Lieutenant Colonel that I understood that courage wasn’t the only qualification to being a commander.

He explained that a battalion commander had to be educated. He had to have experienced all of the levels of command and gained knowledge and experience through those efforts. He told me that they recognized how Raad was a brave man and great leader but at this point in their development of a new Army they needed more for their commanders than just bravery alone.

He told me that my opinion mattered and to remember that before Raad was my friend “he was a brave son of Iraq” and for that they would take care of him. Then he stood up and essentially dismissed us from the room. Instinctively, I did what US soldiers do and did an about face and headed for the door. Aida whispered in her best stage voice, "go shake his hand” and I turned quickly to shake the generals hand and thank him for taking time for us while Aida explained that in the US Army when an officer is dismissed he gets out. The general laughed and apologized but I thanked him for teaching me a valuable lesson.

It is heartbreaking to see my friend lose his job after fighting so bravely for so many years but in the larger picture I do understand their reasoning. His battalion was still mostly an old ING battalion made up of local boys and not really reflective of the larger Iraq like most units. The IA has reached a point where they have officers being generated from their Sandhurst modeled military academies. There is a staff college for Majors and Colonels now and training for combat skills.

They do need to shed the vestiges of the US appointed forces from the early days and move to a new modern force. It’s just sad to see one of my good friends be stepped on in the march forward. So, while I mourn my friends loss of his leadership position I drove back to my office feeling good that it almost seems that real sustainable security and a modern Iraqi military are almost at our fingertips.

The next day Raad called to tell me he was heading home to Ninewa province. He will be back in two weeks to see what they will do with him. I am hoping we can find him a position in the training system teaching young Iraqi soldiers and leaders how to be brave in a fight just as he has so many times.

For me I just hope I can keep doing something in some small way that helps this country continue this path. Days like Monday make me think that this really will be my last tour in Iraq and maybe someday I can come back as a tourist instead and drink chai with my friends and tell war stories about how cool we were back in the day.

(The photo is of Dr. Mohammed and LTC Raad)

Getting out and about

2008-06-11T10:03:00.003-04:00

It has been a little nuts here lately. I am getting pretty short on team members as we shed folks without immediate replacement. Makes it a little challenging to keep going. I am starting to fade a little after too many 16 hour work days in a row. Hopefully there is some relief on the horizon as personnel start arriving this weekend.

The good news is that I am starting to get out and about a bit finally. Last Wednesday we went up to do a media event with the Iraqi press at Taji Air Base north of Baghdad where they are using loaned Army National Guard OH-58's to jump start their Night Vision Goggle training. I used to fly OH-58's for a lot of years so it was really a kick seeing them. The US instructor pilots invited me up to take one out for a spin with them in the next couple of months and there is no way I am passing that up.

We also wanted to see how our Iraqi soldiers were doing in Sadr City so we escorted the Commanding General of the Iraqi Joint Forces out to visit. On our way the roads into the sector were blocked by traffic and an IED that was being defused so we diverted into the Adhamiya neighborhood of Baghdad on a moments notice.

This predominantly Sunni area was a complete no-go zone for Coalition Forces just last year and was the focus of a lot of efforts including installing new solar powered street lights in the fish market and Son's of Iraq checkpoints every couple of blocks. Now its totally peaceful. We cruised over to Antar Square and just parked and jumped out of the MRAPS.

We ended up wandering the streets and not even stopping traffic while meeting folks and visiting the shopkeepers and local Iraqi Army unit. It was really cool to not have a phalanx of security around us for a change while walking the streets and not a single worry the whole time except almost passing out from wearing full battle rattle in the 110 degree heat.

I miss home terribly right now. This is a lot harder than previous trips which surprised me really for both me and everyone at home.

But, I do love this country too. It is a fascinating place to serve and having been involved in this thing since the very beginning its so inspiring to see actual progress with my own eyes and to feel no tension at all while walking around. That just wasn't the case last tour. More often than not the civilians avoided us cause we were targets and they didnt want to get caught in the crossfire I think. Monday I had kids walking up to shake my hand and look at my camera with no worries.

I am finding myself agreeing with the UN Secretary General...one word to describe Iraq right now...hope.

Summer Settles in Baghdad

2008-06-01T16:16:00.002-04:00

So June is upon us and the summer temperatures are settling in. Its been bumping up to about 105 in the afternoon so thats a lot of fun. Been remarkably quiet though thanks to the actions I mentioned in my last post. You probably heard already that May had the lowest casualty count since the war started which is really an incredible thing to contemplate for the whole "the surge will fail" crowd. I have been looking closer at it and its really remarkable how the Iraqis flexed troops all over the country to accomplish three separate simultaneous major operations.

I have found myself fairly overwhelmed with work and a steadily declining number of team members in my shop. My Navy NCO heads out next week and we found out his replacement didn't pass her medical check up so his slot goes empty for a month and a half. That adds another to the current three vacancies I am wrestling with while our mission gets bigger. Never a dull moment. Luckily a 16 hour work day doesn't phase me too much. Hopefully we will start getting relief soon with inbounds.

I was walking back from the Ministry of Defense today with my cultural advisor and had to stop dead in my tracks and get this picture. We actually have a really nice base that used to be an elementary school but this little lawn is out side our operations center. I just loved the guys mowing the yard Baghdad style. Sometimes you sort of do a double take and ask yourself "did I just see that?"

The other picture is what it looks like advising at the Iraqi Joint Headquarters. Not quite the gritty combat action most guys deal with but hey...that was my first two combat tours. This one is often office combat trying to convince a reluctant bureaucrat to spent his money or to rescind a bad order. Its not terribly glamorous but its what I do.

Looks like I might get out of the wire a few times this next couple of weeks and cannot wait to do it. I am planning a trip to visit my old area near Mosul. Dr. Mohammed tells me they want to have a huge celebration in my honor so hopefully in mid-June I will head north to see my friends and enjoy the warmth of the kindest people I have ever known.

Feel free to leave comments or send me an email if you are bored.

The Biggest Change

2008-05-20T15:49:00.003-04:00

I have had a lot of people asking me what has changed in the two years since I was last here. There have been so many things I have seen as I wander around the International Zone and travel the country from the thriving markets and people really just going about their lives to the traffic actually being worse than it was!

But now that I have had time to work with my partners at the Joint Headquarters and link up with some of my old friends like MG Qassim Atta who is now the spokesman for the Baghdad Security Plan. I am forming a clearer position.

I spent about two hours in his office Saturday evening reminiscing about our time together during my last tour and the things he is doing now. Its remarkable how famous he is. We had a poll come in and he is believed my more Iraqis to tell the truth than all of the US leaders combined! He is like a rock star here! He actually has women who write and tell him which uniform he should wear for press conferences! Its hilarious cause he is the most humble guy.

So, what is the biggest change?....no doubt about it....its the fact that the Iraqi Army really kicks ass! I mean seriously...these guys are really getting good at what they do. Sure, they are not as good as us but I have watched this thing over 5 years now and this Army is incredibly capable and brave. Once you get past the pressures they face at home that lead to problems like desertion they can fight like demons. (On that note I read a report the other day where an IA soldier came home to Sadr City after fighting in Basra and the idiots from the Jaesh al Mahdi tried to come and kidnap him for fighting there. He got his weapon and killed two of them and wounded two more before the thugs tossed a grenade in and killed him. Now that is F'ing brave!)

So today the IA went roaring into Sadr City with 10,000 guys! The JAM was a little taken aback. They agreed to a ceasefire thinking some cops would show up...instead nearly an entire division came in and in one day...without any US advisor's even....they have now placed troops at nearly every intersection, occupied and secured nearly every government building and flooded the city with good guys instead of gutless weasels in black ski masks.

It was an amazing day and they are honestly doing this stuff on their own. They are learning the lessons of Basra's first few days and applying them to this fight and up in Mosul. I mean you won't hear it in much press but even the media couldn't deny that the Iraqi Army was impressively taking the streets.

My favorite comment of disbelief was some "expert" based in Syria saying that the JAM basically laid low and "let" the IA come into town but could take the streets back at will. That is the dumbest damn thing I have heard. I mean honestly...as of this writing more than 10,000 men in over 6 battalions backed up with tanks, armored personnel carriers and US airpower are now sitting right on top of them. I have been in Iraq for over two years, I have lived and breathed this country even when I away and I am here to tell you...no one is an expert.

So, the answer to what has changed the most in two years? Our partners are seriously standing up and fighting on their own in the most heroic fashion. Its really gratifying to watch and claim a microscopic piece of credit for helping them get there.

The picture above is the rock star himself MG Qassim. When I met him he was a Colonel sharing two desks with nine of his people in a corner of an office. Times sure change.

Traveling in Style

2008-05-13T14:13:00.004-04:00

So I finally got to hit the road a bit as our incoming Commanding General is in country doing his pre-command recon learning about the mission. I was fortunate to score a spot on the traveling party so I can get a feel for how things have changed and get a better understanding of this incredibly huge mission. We headed north on Saturday and flew up to Kirkuk to see the building blocks of the new Iraqi Air Force and the Iraqi Army facility outside of town. Its really amazing how much its grown since I left two years ago. The Iraqis are actually flying combat missions in support of the recent offensives and will start getting air-to-ground weapons in the coming year.

From Kirkuk we headed up to my old stomping grounds in Mosul. It is still an incredibly beautiful area with the ancient city wrapped around the Tigris river and the mountains surrounding it in the distance. The Iraqis are truly taking the fight to the enemy in town to sweep out all of the various terrorist idiots that linger among the 1.8 million people. From what I heard and saw they are doing a pretty good job of getting it under control.

Saturday found us further north for more tours of the Iraqi Army's training base in the area. I have always found it interesting to speak to young Iraqi Junde as the soldiers are called and find out what motivated them to join the Army. Consistently they say its to defend their country or I often here "If not me then who?". Frankly, they seemed more satisfied then most of our own privates when you ask them what they think of the Army...lol.

One of the interesting problems they are having at the base is the plumbing keeps getting broken as it turns out many of the young men from the farming villages have never had running water before. The base's water supply is intermittent at times due to power outages and when it is off the Junde think they must not be twisting the knob hard enough and rip them off on a regular basis. One of those little cultural nuances I suppose.

Well, we zipped down to the Mosul airfield and the general was swept onto a waiting C12 fixed wing aircraft to fly back to Baghdad. Unfortunately, we had too big a party and I was picked as the senior guy for the second flight. So, I chilled out at the airport for a couple of hours and ended up getting to have the whole aircraft to just three of us. First time I ever got a ride in one of those little things and what a cool way to travel over Iraq. I have been flying over the country for 2 years but never at 10,000 feet before....while kicking back in a leather seat with iPod rocking out.

So now I am back at the grindstone in the Green Zone but its been a bit quieter lately at least. Small favors mean a lot here. Not getting rocketed day and night is always appreciated...so I guess I have that going for me.

Drinking from a firehose

2008-05-09T16:15:00.004-04:00

It has been a wild week and a half or so as I try to get a handle on what I am doing here. This job is a lot more complex than in the past. The organization has grown dramatically and the work is more complex as well. I am finding that while I have a good historical knowledge from my previous tour that there is much more to learn. I am getting there but I have lost a few pieces of my back side while I learn the ropes. Luckily there is just so much back there that I can afford to lose a few chunks of it and keep going. As an old boss of mine used to say "Go ahead and chew my ass...you will run out of teeth before I run out of cheeks."

I did have a really nice today as we found out an amazing US Army Sergeant in Diyala province had found a little girl who lost both her legs below the knees to an IED several months ago. He was able to link up with the Iraqi Ministry of Defense Surgeon General and get her down here to Baghdad to the MoD Prosthetics Clinic. Today they fitted her with two brand new high tech legs. It was really a nice event and we had some media show up to see it. I hope they will pick up the story but you just can't tell anymore. With the Dem's still going strong nothing much seems to get through the noise anymore.

Other than that the rockets continue to rain down from the sky on a semi-regular basis. Amazing how you just sort of get used to running for cover at a moments notice and then get on with your day. Our friends in Sadr City just love sending us whatever they get from Iran this week. Not that we don't appreciate the thought and all but its all very embarrassing...all that attention just for us. It just seems so rude.

I walked in my office and found Morgan's damn monkey at my computer screwing around. Just goes to prove even a STUFFED monkey could do my job. The important thing to remember is never give a monkey coffee...they are just too hyper.

Spring in Baghdad

2008-04-26T16:34:00.003-04:00

You know its easy to forget how pretty it actually is in this ancient city until you are here in the spring and the doves are singing in the trees and the scent of flowers is everywhere. Of course, then a dust storm rolls in followed by a rocket attack alert and suddenly you are trying to act all cool while cowering in a "duck and cover" bunker. Its then you realize you aren't in Kansas anymore and that Dorothy was kind of whiny.

I have been amazed how much my organization has changed from what I left two years ago. It has grown dramatically not just in number of personnel but the size of our base and the complexity of the mission. This is really graduate level stuff trying to build a nations capability to defend themselves while in the middle of a brutal war. I can't get over how much progress has been made to be honest...and how far there is to go still.

I am living in a different area of the International Zone than last time a bit further from the river. Its actually a bit more primitive in most aspects but its still loads better than the poor guys out in the combat outposts so I have no room to complain. Even being on the approach path to the helipad is sort of something you just get used to.

We had been getting hammered pretty hard by rocket shots from Sadr City for the last few weeks but amazingly its slacked off since I have been here. (knock on wood...could it perhaps be an extension of the "lucky bubble" I seemed to walk with last tour...we can only hope). We have had a few rocket alerts and shots have landed in the neighborhood but certainly nothing like the last month. I am not complaining. There is a certain amount of a gut check associated with those alarms going off and seeing people diving for cover that I would just assume not deal with much while I am here.

I am settling in nicely though and the guy I am relieving has just done an incredible job of setting me up for success. The mission is a real monster but I love a challenge and didn't come here expecting any less. It is cool to apply the things I learned at Harvard last year and honed at the Pentagon for the last 10 months. I have been spouting theories for two years now...I guess its time to step up and see if they might work.

Lets hope so...or it will really be a long year.

(Oh...the monkey is doing pretty well so far. He is quiet so I put up with him.)