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The Real Revo has put up a video showing the difference between the reactions of the Marines at Camp Lejeune to George W. Bush and Barack H. Obama. ~~~~ Several like videos at the site link.

AL-ANBAR PROVINCE, Iraq — Marines from 2nd Battalion, 25th Marine Regiment, Regimental Combat Team 5 and Police Transition Team 4 teamed up Dec. 26 to help Iraqi Police from the Port of Waleed to form good relationships with their new neighbors in the town of Walej. Over the past six months, nomadic shepherds and their families, destitute from drought and disease which ravaged their herds, were forced to move from the desert into the town of Walej. Located in a remote region of western al-Anbar province near the Syrian border, Walej was an Iraqi Army compound prior to 2003. It...

Iraq War: We interrupt coverage of Bristol Palin's pregnancy to announce that the U.S. has turned over control of Iraq's wild, wild west to Baghdad. Memo to Barack Obama: Soon you will have nothing left to surrender.On Monday, while Democrats waited to see if Hurricane Gustav would be another Katrina and the GOP juggled its convention schedule, U.S. commanders formally returned responsibility for security in Iraq's Anbar province to the Iraqi Army and police. Maybe you missed it. The New York Times Web page had three stories on Bristol Palin. The Washington Post's online magazine, Slate, is running a "Name...

An MV-22 Osprey, belonging to Marine Medium Tilt Rotor Squadron 263, sits on the deck waiting for members of the 27th Infantry Brigade, 7th Iraqi Infantry Division and Marines with Military in Transition team 0720 to load up after a heli-borne operation. Photo by 3rd Marine Aircraft Wing (Fwd) Public Affairs. AL-ANBAR PROVINCE — As Coalition forces continue to operate throughout the Iraqi countryside, training the Iraqi security forces (ISF) to stand on their own two feet becomes an increasingly familiar scene. Third Marine Aircraft Wing (Forward) does its own part in the transition process by participating in training operations...

This week the nation marked the fifth anniversary of our presence in Iraq. It is past time to remember the liberators. Now at the end of their third tour they are preparing to leave: the 1st "Raider" Brigade, 3rd Infantry Division deployed to Al Anbar province 15 months ago as an element of the "surge" force. Its commander, Col. John W. Charlton, is responsible not only for his Army units, but also for Navy, Marine and Air Force personnel operating with them. His area of operations -- AO Topeka -- covers 8,900 sq. miles. From the outset his focus was...

FALLUJAH, Iraq (March 19, 2008) -- March 20, 2003, televisions glowed in living rooms across America. Families glued to the screens, watching Coalition troops brave austere desert conditions and cross the threshold, invading the hostile nation of Iraq. Advances in the media’s technology gave unprecedented coverage of troops, humvees, and armored vehicles rolling across desolate stretches of sand. For the first time, Americans and people around the world were able to witness two nations wage war on live television; capturing step by step, the reality of combat and the raw emotion of American sons and daughters. In April 2003, the...

HADITHA, Iraq – A two-year-old Iraqi girl returned to Haditha March 7 after undergoing open-heart surgery at the Monroe Carell Jr. Children’s Hospital at Vanderbilt University. Ala Thabit Fattah, the girl’s father, and several family members traveled with Marines to Baghdad International Airport to meet Amenah, who departed Iraq Jan. 22 with his wife. “I am very happy. I was very worried that my daughter would not come home alive,” Fattah said. “I am very grateful for the great treatment the American people gave to my family.” The family then flew to Al Asad Airbase in Al Anbar Province, where...

Cpl. Jessica A. Cox, a 24-year-old from Waynesville, Mo., controls the flow of patients at a Cooperative Medical Engagement event in as-Saqlawiyah, Iraq, Feb. 29. The event provided free medical treatment to more than 200 civilians in the community. Iraqi culture discourages male-female interaction in public, so a female team provided care and posted security for women and children. The CME events are continuous throughout Al Anbar Province. The combined effort between Iraqi personnel and coalition forces is part of the Iraqi Women's Engagement program driven by the U.S. Department of State. Cox is deployed to Camp Taqaddum as...

The Patton of Counterinsurgency With a sequence of brilliant offensives, Raymond Odierno adapted the Petraeus doctrine into a successful operational art. by Frederick W. Kagan and Kimberly Kagan 03/10/2008, Volume 013, Issue 25 Great commanders often come in pairs: Eisenhower and Patton, Grant and Sherman, Napoleon and Davout, Marlborough and Eugene, Caesar and Labienus. Generals David Petraeus and Raymond Odierno can now be added to the list. It's natural to assume that successful pairs of commanders complement each other's personalities (the diplomatic Eisenhower and the hard-charging Patton, for example) or that the junior partner is merely executing the vision...

I have just had the privilege of returning to Iraq and more specifically to Al Anbar Province for my third tour. I say privilege for a number of different reasons, not the least of which is the opportunity to again serve with young Americans ---- the best of their generation ---- in combat. A second reason is there is no greater honor for any man or woman than to protect one's country in time of grave danger while wearing the nation's cloth. Finally, I do not think there can be anything more gratifying on this earth for an American than...

AL TAQADDUM, Iraq (Feb. 7, 2008) -- The 2nd Marine Logistics Group (Forward) transferred the responsibility of combat logistics in Iraq’s Al Anbar province to the 1st Marine Logistics Group during a ceremony here Thursday. In January 2007, the same month the 2nd MLG (Fwd) arrived in theater, President George W. Bush said in an address to the nation that “Al Qaeda has helped make Anbar the most violent area of Iraq outside the capital,” and news reports regularly referred to the “volatile Anbar province” as a stronghold for Al Qaeda and the Sunni insurgency. One year later the province...

MARINE CORPS BASE CAMP LEJEUNE, N.C. (Jan. 28, 2008) -- Sgt. Jeremy F. Boutwell, a 23-year-old Marine, knows a thing or two about “honor, courage and commitment.” Boutwell, an intelligence specialist with Headquarters and Service Company, 1st Battalion, 9th Marine Regiment, 2nd Marine Division, II Marine Expeditionary Force, is planning for an upcoming deployment to Iraq after sustaining severe injuries during an attack in Al Anbar Province, March 14, 2004. Boutwell was an MK-19 machine gunner with Weapons Company, 3rd Battalion, 7th Marine Regiment, 1st Marine Division, I Marine Expeditionary Force (forward), when the attack occurred during a motorized routine...

“I am a ring on your finger.” — Al Qaeda in Iraq member Abu Anas to Abu Musab Al ZarqawiSince Abu Musab Al Zarqawi formed the Al Qaeda in Iraq franchise, the terrorist group that destroyed the World Trade Center has fought American soldiers and what they call the near enemy, fellow Muslims, instead of civilians in the homeland of the far enemy, the United States. This may be good for Americans, but it has been a catastrophe for Iraqis – especially in Baghdad, Ramadi, and Fallujah. I had lunch with several Iraqi Police officers and spoke to them afterward...

Family, friends, and Fellow Marines, As promised, here is my first "update" from this tour in Iraq. I will try and get one of these out about every month. I hope this finds you all doing well. It has been a very fast moving month and a half as we moved the 1,000+ Marines from 1/7 and literally tons of equipment and material half way around the world through Kuwait and eventually into Iraq. We have inventoried and signed for well over a hundred pieces of rolling stock, thousands of pieces of electronic equipment and computers, joined a few hundred...

Breaking: U.S. Dispatches Two Battalions To Al Anbar In Emergency Move To Battle Al Qaeda’s Revenge Mission Against Sunni Tribes You won’t find this story anywhere in the MSM. But my military sources in Baghdad and elsewhere have confirmed to me that 1. beginning yesterday, Thursday, July 28th, two U.S. battalions began moving into Al Anbar to hunt Al Qaeda members smuggled out of Baghdad through Fallujah and Ramadi, and 2. that Al Qaeda has launched not so much a military campaign to retake Al Anbar, but a revenge campaign against its Sunni denizens, and most specifically its denizens’ Sheiks,...

Nick Roberson reports.

WASHINGTON (AFP) - Insurgents in Iraq detonated an explosives-rigged vehicle with two children in the back seat after US soldiers let it through a Baghdad checkpoint over the weekend, a senior US military official said Tuesday. The vehicle was stopped at the checkpoint but was allowed through when soldiers saw the children in the back, said Major General Michael Barbero of the Pentagon's Joint Staff. "Children in the back seat lowered suspicion. We let it move through. They parked the vehicle, and the adults ran out and detonated it with the children in the back," Barbero said. The general said...

November 24, 2006: Earlier this year, al Qaeda declared western Iraq (Anbar province) to be their new base of operations. Shortly thereafter, a coalition of Sunni Arab tribes agreed to work with the government to destroy al Qaeda forces in the area. This brought to a head two years of violence in western Iraq. While many of the tribal chiefs out here had been allies of Saddam Hussein, and his Baath Party, this was mainly because Saddam was generous with the tribes, and pointed out that, in the wake of the 1991 Shia Arab revolt (which the Sunni tribes helped...

IN THE NAME OF GOD, MOST GRACIOUS MOST MERCYFUL So this is the reality we’re living in al-Anbar in general, and Ramadi in particular, that is the head Sheiks of some tribes, and symbols of the Islamic Party, sat with the Americans in Jordan, and other places, to fight terrorism and its people. The Sheiks started teaching people about these ideas, this conspiracy is led by two sides, the first is the heads of the tribes, the second is the leaders of the Islamic Party and mosques speakers, so they announced their war on the Mujahidin, it increased during the...

Iraqi Salafi sources affirm that differences erupted last week in several areas of Al-Anbar province in western Iraq among groups belonging to Al-Qaeda in Mesopotamia. These differences intervened after the Iraqi Jihadi groups had picked a new leader. The move confirmed previous reports that Iraqi militants of Al-Qaeda were still contesting the leadership of Abu Hamza Al-Muhajer or Egyptian-born Abu Ayyub Al-Masri. According to these reports, Iraqi Salafi groups, including Jaysh Al-Islam (Army of Al-Islam) support Abu Osama Al-Iraqi. Iraqi leaders of the tribes Al-Shammari, Al-Dulaimi and Al-Jibouri also support him. However, this will not be the end of the...

CAMP FALLUJAH, Iraq (NNS) -- The Army Corps of Engineers (ACoE) has been augmented this summer by some senior enlisted Navy leaders who volunteered as individual augmentees to help rebuild cities within the Al-Anbar Province in western Iraq. Chief Aviation Boatswain's Mate (Handler) (AW/SW) Michael Yule, who three months ago was teaching at the Center for Navy Leadership in Little Creek, Va., has now found himself playing a vital role in the rebuilding of the provincial cities of Al-Asaad, Ramadi and Fallujah. "Right now, we're rebuilding more than 50 houses in Fallujah," said Yule, a native of Pittsburgh. "We're also...

Multi-National Corps – Iraq Press Release Public Affairs Office, Camp Victory APO AE 09342 FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE Aug. 9, 2006 Release No. 20060809-01 Coalition Force helicopter goes down in Al Anbar CAMP FALLUJAH, Iraq – A U.S. Army UH – 60 Blackhawk helicopter from 3rd Marine Aircraft Wing went down August 8 in Al Anbar Province with six Coalition forces on board during an area familiarization flight. The aircraft has been located. Search and rescue efforts are ongoing for two missing crewmembers. The remaining four are in stable condition. “We are using all the resources available to find our...

RAMADI, Iraq – This morning Iraqi Security Forces, with support from Coalition forces, began searching Al Anbar University in southwestern Ramadi, which is being used as a center for insurgent activity. Iraqi and Coalition forces have received sniper fire from the hospital on multiple occasions, and credible intelligence reports indicated the university is being used as an insurgent safe haven and command center. Iraqi and Coalition forces are securing the university to provide a safe and secure educational environment. Soldiers from 1st Brigade, 7th Iraqi Army Division, with support from soldiers assigned to the U.S. Army 1st Brigade, 1st Armored...

AL ASAD, Iraq (June 6, 2006) -- Sipping on bottled water, rifle in hand and wearing a good 60 pounds of body armor on this sprawling U.S. military airbase, Lance Cpl. Emanuel Cantu says he doesn’t mind training for combat in Iraq’s blistering 110-plus degree temperature. In fact, he says he loves it. After all, four months of serving in Iraq as part of a quick reaction force has helped the 31-year-old Marine lose more than 20 pounds, but more importantly, he says he’s found his niche in the Marine Corps – training to save lives. “I feel like I’m...

"These Marines are great. America ought to be very proud of its Marines, soldiers, sailors and airmen; they're doing great work out here." So Marine Col. Stephen Davis, the commander of Regimental Combat Team 2 (RCT-2), told me once we had a chance to talk near al Qaim, Iraq. Davis is in charge of Operation Matador, an effort to bring law and order to the bulk of Iraq's vast, western al Anbar province, which makes up one-third of the country. What these Marines are doing now near the Syrian border is what they did months ago in Fallujah, and the...

AL ASAD, Iraq (May 19, 2006) -- Since Cpl. Haider Mohammed Jender joined the Iraqi Army a year ago, he has learned how to combat insurgents and provide security to his people. Now, the 34-year-old Iraqi soldier has completed what he says is the most important training he’ll ever receive – how to save lives. Jender was one of 20 Iraqi soldiers who recently graduated from an Iraqi Army’s Basic Medical Course here – the first in western Al Anbar Province – five weeks of lectures, written examinations and practical application on what U.S. medical personnel deem as crucial life-saving...

AL ASAD, Iraq (May 9, 2006) -- The Chemical, Biological, Radiological and Nuclear Marines with Marine Aircraft Group 16 (Reinforced), 3rd Marine Aircraft Wing, conducted training April 25, in Al Asad, Iraq, to enhance their skills under varied conditions. The CBRN Marines have in place an incident response team to deal with situations that involve the use of the four agents. "We've taken traditional Nuclear, Biological and Chemical doctrine and modified it for use in a nontraditional NBC threat environment," said Sgt. Chad W. Jenkins, response team leader, CBRN, from Portland, Ore. "Here, we have to stay ready to defend...

HUSAYBAH, Iraq (May 3, 2006) -- Security, safety, and quality of life – three key elements to the continuing progress in this region of Iraq’s Al Anbar Province, according to local Iraqi leadership. Once a week, local sheiks and city officials meet with Iraqi Army and Coalition Forces officials in this small town near the Iraqi-Jordanian border, to discuss these topics and overall progress in this region along the Euphrates River. It’s also an opportunity for the city and tribal leaders to address any potential problems which might hinder that progress. At the latest of these town-hall-style meetings held April...

CAMP HABBINYAH, Iraq (April 30, 2006) -- Nearly 1,000 Iraqi Army soldiers graduated boot camp today, beginning the first step toward an integrated army in Al Anbar Province. “The movement of an integrated army in Al Anbar is the only future,” said Col. Larry D. Nicholson, commander of Regimental Combat Team 5, based in Fallujah. “When people look out their window and see the army, they need to be able to say, ‘It’s my army.’ Today, we took a very positive step in that direction.” A total of 973 Iraqi soldiers graduated a nearly five-week training regimen that turned civilians...

AL TAQADDUM, Iraq (May 1, 2006) -- The Vipers of Marine Light Attack Helicopter Squadron 169 assumed authority from the Gunfighters of HMLA-369, for providing close air support, escort, surveillance, and reconnaissance to coalition ground and assault support forces in western Iraq. Having been in Iraq for less than two weeks, the Vipers, part of Marine Aircraft Group 16 (Reinforced), 3rd Marine Aircraft Wing, received plenty of help from their predecessors in preparing for the dangerous mission ahead. "HMLA-369 did an incredible job of setting us up for success. They flew most of our aircraft commanders on numerous missions, provided...

HADITHA, Iraq (April 12, 2006) -- The windswept streets of Haditha are lined with stores and houses pocked with bullet holes that tell a story of a community once plagued by fear from insurgents and terrorists. Now, those stories are fading memories and new memories are being formed. The buildings in the city of approximately 30,000 are being rebuilt and children are free to play safely in the streets guarded by United States Marines. “The Marines are our friends and have been a gift from God,” said “Josem," in French, which he learned while studying at a university in France....

BARWANAH, Iraq (March 28, 2006) -- Hawaii-based Marines searching a known hotspot for insurgent-placed “improvised explosive devices” say the danger posed by these deadly devices do not deter them from providing security to the local populace here. The Marines operating in this western Al Anbar Province town had one detonate only a few feet from them during a recent patrol and search operation in this town along the Euphrates River. When the explosion occurred, the Marines, from Lima Co., 3rd Battalion, 3rd Marine Regiment, were teaching Iraqi Soldiers the tactics and procedures used by insurgents who place IEDs. Since January...

CAMP AL ASAD, Iraq (March 21, 2006) -- Tucked neatly inside the Marines’ base here is an Iraqi Army camp, where Iraqi soldiers are training day and night to learn the skills they’ll need to eventually relieve Coalition Forces of security operations in Iraq. The Iraqi soldiers here – part of the 2nd Brigade, 7th Iraqi Army Division – have spent months learning everything from basic marksmanship to administration and now, medical evacuation and treatment. Most recently, the soldiers here received arguably some of the most crucial training they’ll need to survive in western Al Anbar Province – how to...

<p>BREAKING: Hibhib village, Iraqi soldiers arrested 20 terrorists.</p> <p>BREAKING: Forward Operating Base Remagen, with Operation Swarmer, American heroes in helicopters.</p> <p>BREAKING: Basra- Market of military equipment, helping terrorist murders Al Anbar province, weapons found Baquba - Iraqi soldiers take terrorists Basra - Brave Brits in security operation Beiji - Operation 'Cordon and Knock' Najaf - Mehdi Army protects terrorist Moqtada Sadr Ramadi - Operation 'Band of Brothers', American and Iraqi heroes after bombings killed 64 people Tikrit - U.S. Army and Iraqi heroes on a 'knock and search' mission Victory base complex - Iraqis at their "hand over ceremony"</p>

CAMP AL ASAD, Iraq (March 15, 2006) -- Iraqi soldiers are right on schedule with training requirements that will allow them to eventually relieve U.S. military forces in western Al Anbar Province, according to Marine officials here. Soldiers from the 2nd Brigade, 7th Iraqi Army Division - one of two Iraqi Army brigades in western Al Anbar Province - have spent months now learning the administrative and decision-making processes they’ll need to function as a military headquarters element to the three Iraqi infantry battalions which will eventually be under their charge. Partnered with a Military Transition Team - groups of...

A chief of list to legislative in Iraq killed in an attack BAGHDAD - the sunnite Mezher Nagi Al-Doulaïmi, chief candidate to legislative of Thursday in Iraq, was killed Tuesday by shootings of unknown in the rebellious Al-Anbar province, in the west of Baghdad, announced a source of safety. The victim was the chief of the free Party Iraqi progressist, a small formation which introduced three candidates, of which Doulaïmi, with the poll in this province. "Of unknown opened fire on its car with Ramadi (Al-Anbar chief town), killing it and wounding a person who accompanied it", according to...

Camp Blue Diamond, Ar Ramadi, Iraq (Nov. 2, 2005) -- The 2nd Marine Division is progressively receiving the additional combat power that its commanders have requested to conduct the counter-insurgency operations in the Al Anbar province. The new battalion-sized units flowing into the Western Euphrates River Valley are from the newly trained Iraqi Army. This is a significant change compared to the number of available Iraqi Army units when the 2nd Marine Division took over from 1st Marine Division in March of this year. At that time, only Fallujah and Ramadi had any Iraqi Army or Public Order Brigade presence....

CAMP FALLUJAH, Iraq (Nov. 2, 2005) -- More than 22 years ago the United States government agreed to establish a peacekeeping presence in Beirut, Lebanon to help quell a conflict between Muslim and Christian factions in the country. In early 1983 Marines and Sailors of the 24th Marine Amphibious Unit, deployed to Beirut to support the mission. During the early morning hours of Oct., 23, 1983, having spent nearly six months in country, disaster struck. At approximately 6:22 a.m., 241 service members [220 Marines, 18 Sailors and three Soldiers] lost their lives in a matter of seconds when a suicide...

AL ANBAR, Iraq (Oct. 5, 2005) -- The 6th Civil Affairs Group has taken over operations from 5th CAG and has constructed additional plans for the future of Iraq's economic development. Health care, education, electricity and water works, and many other facets essential to the infrastructure of the country are already under way. "The work done by 5th CAG was a great stepping stone to further governance in Al Anbar," said Col. Miles Burdine, government suport team commanding officer. "We are taking some of their initiatives and adding our own to help rebuild the government and encourage Iraqi leadership to...

While Hunter completed two combat tours in Afghanistan as an active duty Marine, Nothstine was deployed to the Al-Anbar province of Iraq in early February 2005. Nothstine joined the 3rd Battalion, 6th Marines, India Company for his deployment in Iraq. As a crew chief on an amphibious assault vehicle, which is used to carry and support the infantry in combat operations through the cities and towns of Al-Anbar Province, he was part of numerous combat operations. Hunter deployed to Iraq in late August for his third military deployment but his first venture to Iraq. He, too, was attached to the...

US forces launched multiple air strikes against a suspected hideout of the Al-Qaeda terror network in the restive Al-Anbar province of Iraq near the Syrian border Friday, the US military said. Around 50 militants associated with Al-Qaeda frontman in Iraq, Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, were in a safe house in the border town of Husaybah at the time of the air strikes, it said. "The terrorists were using their position to attack the residents of the city with small-arms fire," it added. No casualty figures were immediately given. US marines based in Husaybah have seen an escalation in fighting between Zarqawi...

BAGHDAD, Iraq – Multi-national ground forces, acting on an Iraqi tip, discovered and destroyed a large cache of artillery shells in the early hours of Aug. 16. The shells were apparently intended for use as improvised explosive devices. An explosive ordinance disposal technician advised that the 25 to 30 individual 152mm rounds located inside a building within Al Anbar province be destroyed. Security forces confirmed there were no friendly or enemy personnel in the building. Security forces destroyed the building and its contents with an air strike after ensuring all non-combatants were clear of the area. Secondary explosions were observed....

AL ASAD, Iraq - (Aug 5, 2005) -- The Moonlighters of Marine All-Weather Fighter Attack Squadron 332 joined the forward deployed 2nd Marine Aircraft Wing Aug. 1 in support of stability operations in the Al Anbar province. The Moonlighters replaced the Bengals of VMFA(AW)-224. Both squadrons are based in Marine Corps Air Station, Beaufort, S.C. “We are here to continue the work of our predecessors in support of the II Marine Expeditionary Force and the Marines on the ground as they fight to keep Iraq free,” said Sgt. Maj. Nicholas Bourikas, the squadron sergeant major. The Moonlighters’ efforts to support...

BAGHDAD, July 18 (KUNA) -- US fighter jets launched on Monday air attacks on locations suspected of being hideouts of insurgents in Rawa village, western Iraq. Both Iraqi and US forces took part in the un-named mission, launched early on Monday. Eyewitnesses said the US military launched a wide-scale operation in a number of locations in Rawa village, in Al-Anbar constituency. In another development, Iraqi security forces found a large weapon hideout in Mosul, north of Iraq, an Iraqi official said. The hideout included a large quantity of missiles, communication devices, military uniforms, knives and swords, the official added.

<p>KARABILAH, Iraq — U.S. Marines and Iraqi forces battled insurgents on two fronts Saturday in a restive western province, killing about 50 militants in a dusty frontier town in the military's latest campaign to stop foreign fighters infiltrating from neighboring Syria (search).</p>

RAMADI, Iraq - The deputy commander of the Iraqi army in western Al-Anbar province was shot dead by US troops at a checkpoint Tuesday night, a police officer said. "The US forces opened fire at 8:00 pm (1700 GMT) on Brigadier General Ismail Swayed al-Obeid, who had left his base in Baghdadi to head home," police Captain Amin al-Hitti said. "They spotted him on the road after the curfew, which goes into effect at 6 pm," the officer said in Baghdadi, 185 kilometres (142 miles) west of the capital. No immediate reaction was available from the US military. US...

ALARM - Four American soldiers killed in the west of Baghdad BAGHDAD - Four American soldiers were killed Friday at the time of operations of combat in the rebellious Al-Anbar province, in the west of Baghdad, announced the American army Saturday.

Father receives letter Thursday from Kolda, killed by blast Dec. 1 Six days before he was killed in Iraq, Zachary Kolda told his family that he was blessed to be their son, brother and husband and to be fighting for his country. The 23-year-old Marine corporal from Corpus Christi posted what would be his final message on the family's Web site Thanksgiving Day. "I have a wonderful, loving family I have the honor to be married to the most beautiful (mind, body, soul) person I've ever known," he wrote. "I have the honor of defending the greatest nation ever created...

Spirit of America, led by Jim Hake [raised] money to equip six Iraqi TV stations in Al Anbar province. The project was led there by the First Marine Expeditionary Force and the Army.... The Spirit of America's Iraq democracy project came together.... The pro-freedom Iraqi bloggers [posted]their delightful account of a first-ever trip beyond Iraq's borders... at iraqthemodel.com. Other Iraqis... are willing to take personal risks to educate the Iraqi people about the meaning and purpose of democracy before that January election date.... To get the word out, the Friends of Democracy plans to use all available media. Plans so...

I don't read obituaries. Never really have. Yet for some reason, every day I read the casualty list on page A2 of the paper. I skim over the names and then take note of the total. When it finally hit 1,000, all the major media showcased the grisly milestone. I knew that number would be highlighted. The media was trying to put faces and names to all those deaths. But for me, I didn't need to get to number 1,000. Number 958 was what froze my speeding eyes in their tracks: Nachez Washalanta II, private first class, U.S. Marine Corps....