Iraq progress report

Courtesy of Blackfive.net


They mentioned this article from the New York Times*:
Violence Leaves Young Iraqis Doubting Clerics

*The Snake Advocate doesn't take anything the New York Times seriously, but has to admit that this article had some interesting statements. Take this one for example:

Violent struggle against the United States was easy to romanticize at a distance.

“I used to love Osama bin Laden,” proclaimed a 24-year-old Iraqi college student. She was referring to how she felt before the war took hold in her native Baghdad. The Sept. 11, 2001, strike at American supremacy was satisfying, and the deaths abstract.

Now, the student recites the familiar complaints: Her college has segregated the security checks; guards told her to stop wearing a revealing skirt; she covers her head for safety.

“Now I hate Islam,” she said, sitting in her family’s unadorned living room in central Baghdad. “Al Qaeda and the Mahdi Army are spreading hatred. People are being killed for nothing.”

So I guess the whole rhetoric of that the war on terror is creating more terrorists, isn't really conclusive at all.

No True Glory

So I finally finished reading "No True Glory: Fallujah and the Struggle in Iraq: A Frontline Account" and I really didn't feel any good for doing so. The book is brilliant and I hope the movie doesn't disappoint by taking out many of the details in the book.
To read a book like this one must prepare mentally to do so, and that is by simply avoiding:
1. Playing any of the Medal of Honor games in the toughest difficulty setting for long hours at a time
2. Playing Command and Conquer: Generals against the maximum number of brutal armies.
3. Watching the Kingdom or Black Hawk Down three times before finishing the book
4. Not getting enough sleep

I feel jumpy every time I think about the last two chapters of the book -operation Phantom Fury. The description of the fire fights, the pain and the destruction is brilliant. I wish my writing style was half as good.

If you compare this book to another brilliant book, One Bullet Away, you can clearly see the major differences in the different phases of Operation Iraqi freedom. The March to Baghdad was quick, and very straight forward. While dealing with an insurgency was very slow, confusing, and created more damage. It took three weeks for Baghdad to fall, and it also took three weeks of combat to clean Fallujah of insurgents.

There is no Glory in death and destruction, but if they have to happen, they must be for a just cause. Cleaning Fallujah from these terrorists was worth it. Any fight that brings people order and freedom is worth it. Time will be a witness to Iraq's freedom, and the end is coming soon.

Finish the Fight.
-Semper Fi

Osama and the Book of Mormon

Just watch it!