Free Republic

I read Joe Galloway’s columns and often disagree with him. But Joe usually makes points that deserve consideration. Joe is not weak or weak-minded; I’ve told him to his face that he’s a mean old man. But I respect Joe. He has fought in pitched combat side-by-side with our troops. Joe thinks we’re losing the Iraq War and I believe we’re winning. Even though we disagree about Iraq, Joe and I both believe that torture is wrong. Last week, I was invited by Dr. Rohan Gunaratna, one of the world’s leading experts on al Qaeda, to speak to a group...

That’s because it’s a country striving for normality, whose normal aspects rarely make their way into media reports that highlight violence, mayhem, and failure. On TV, Iraq looks like a nation of masked, gun-toting fanatics, but in person, one finds friendliness, solidarity, and reasonableness amid the chaos. “Just because Iraqis have ‘Allahu Akbar’ on their flag,” Yon writes, “doesn’t mean they’re going to blow up the World Trade Center any more than ‘In God We Trust’ means we’re going to attack Communist China.” “Iraq does not hate America,” he insists. “If they hated us, I’d be urging an immediate troop...

April saw 49 U.S. casualties in Iraq, the highest total in seven months. Does this mean, as some insist, that the enormous progress we have made since the start of the military surge is being lost? As one who has spent nearly two years with American soldiers and Marines and British Army troops in Iraq - having returned from my last trip a month ago - here's my short answer: no. We are taking more casualties now, just as we did in the first part of 2007, because we have taken up the next crucial challenge of this war: confronting...

All three are doing well but we’d like to see them doing better. Too bad Fox & Friends didn’t have more time to chat with him, especially as regards Petraeus moving over to Centcom. Yon’s been insisting for two years now that it’s Afghanistan, not Iraq, where we’re in the most trouble; he’s obviously pleased to see the general kicked upstairs and into another theater, but it’s unclear from the brief exchange here what he thinks Petraeus will or should do differently.

Replacing Fatalism with Hope Inside Iraq with Michael Yon. An NRO Q&A Michael Yon is the brave independent reporter who has told us the story of this war on his website, michaelyon-online.com. Now he is the author of the new book, Moment of Truth in Iraq, published by the new Richard Vigilante Books. Michael recently took questions from National Review Online editor Kathryn Lopez. Kathryn Jean Lopez: What does it mean to be American “in the most romantic sense of the word” and why is it essential to counterinsurgency? Michael Yon: Remember the scene in Lawrence of Arabia, where Peter...

Planes, Trains, Armored Trucks, and Afghanistan Instead of “planes, trains, and automobiles,” my trip from western Nineveh to Mosul, to Erbil, to Vienna, to Stuttgart, to Atlanta, to El Paso, and then to Florida was much more interesting. It included helicopters, armored pickup trucks, trains, buses, cars and numerous jets. And the “fun” has just begun. After Florida there will be Washington, D.C., and then back to the war. As always, I beg forgiveness for the great difficulty I have responding to emails. In addition to all the travel there is also the endless homework. A big challenge has been...

I learned this morning that an extraordinary American died in Iraq last week. Mark Metherell was a Wheaton graduate, a former Navy SEAL, and a civilian training the Iraqi Security Forces when the evil guys got him and his trainees in an IED attack in Baghdad. I have met some of Metherell's extended family over the years in Orange County, california. He is part of an extraordinary band of servant leaders, and his commitment to the new Iraq does not surprise given the family in which he was raised. He was a graduate of Wheaton College, and at the memorial...

It is said that generals always fight the last war. But when David Petraeus came to town it was senators – on both sides of the aisle – who battled over the Iraq war of 2004-2006. That war has little in common with the war we are fighting today. I may well have spent more time embedded with combat units in Iraq than any other journalist alive. I have seen this war – and our part in it – at its brutal worst. And I say the transformation over the last 14 months is little short of miraculous. The change...

Michael Yon called on his satellite phone to talk about what's going on in Iraq. I recorded it and it's up here for your listening pleasure -- nothing fancy, just a quick recording posted less than 20 minutes after it happened. Click here to listen. A few key points: (1) It's likely to get worse before it's better; (2) No one seems to doubt Iranian backing for the violence; (3) This isn't about religion, it's about money and power; and (4) Unlike Al Qaeda in the north, this isn't so much a fight to the finish as violence as a...

Stake through Their Hearts Killing al Qaeda March 2008Western Nineveh Province, Iraq The sun was setting over Nineveh as four terrorists driving tons of explosives closed on their targets. On August 14, 2007, the Yezidi villages of Qahtaniya and Jazeera were under attack, but only the terrorists knew it as they drove their trucks straight into the hearts of the communities. The shockwave from detonation far outpaced the speed of sound. Buildings and humans were ripped apart and hurled asunder. Superheated poisonous gases from the explosions gathered the smoke and dust and lofted heavenward, while the second detonation quickly...

Mosul, Iraq Men crept in darkness to plant a bomb. They moved in an area where last year I was helping to collect fallen American soldiers from the battlefield. Terrorists. The ones who murder children in front of their parents. The ones who take drugs and rape women and boys. The ones who blow up schools. The ones who have been forcibly evicted from places like Anbar Province, Baghdad and Baqubah by American and Iraqi forces. Terrorists are here now in Mosul. They call themselves al Qaeda in Iraq (AQI). AQI cannot win without Baghdad, and cannot survive without Mosul....

On the morning of 28 September 2007, the moon was still large as it descended to the horizon. 4 Rifles folded camp and by the time the sun was up, they were ready. At 0800 an “op order” was issued. The G-2 (intelligence) officer named Andy said that the COB (Basra Airport) had been hit with 2 IDF (mortars or rockets) the night before. There was increasing activity around 4 Rifles, and the F-18s had detected hotspots, which might be bombs planted for us. 4 Rifles launched a “trigger op” later that night, a simple operation designed to interdict smugglers....

By the third month of Telic 10, 4 Rifles soldiers had been hit with about 1,700 rockets and mortars at their small encampment at the Palace. One day, more than 70 rockets and mortars exploded inside the compound. Just walking to breakfast or lunch could be a deadly mission. As a result, some soldiers ate only once per day. 4 Rifles fired more than 37,000 rounds of machine gun and rifle ammunition. They fired grenades, Javelin missiles, and artillery. American jets and helicopters launched rockets and dropped bombs. If this situation could have been impacted by artillery and ammunition, it...

Michael Yon was not a journalist, and he wasn’t sure what a blogger was. He had been in uniform but not in combat, and he wanted to keep it that way. He went to Iraq thinking he would stay for a month, and maybe find a way to write about the war after he got home. Michael Yon, a former Special Forces fighter, writes dispatches and posts photographs from the front lines in Iraq. Instead, he has spent most of the last three years in Iraq, writing prolifically and graphically, and racking up more time embedded with combat units than...

JULY 29 WAS a night of celebration for many people. It was, for instance, peak tourist season and the twenty-third birthday of a man who was about to enter and forever change my life. He had dropped out of high school after a run-in with a teacher, and then drifted around the country for five years until our paths crossed on the Atlantic coast. That night I was with my friend, Steve Shaulis. We had just completed an intensive first year of training for our future jobs and, since we were among the minority that had succeeded this far, we...

William Rigby and his identical twin brother John were in 4 Rifles. On their 23rd birthday, John was up in the hatch of a Bulldog when a bomb detonated and a piece of shrapnel struck his head, mortally wounding him. William was by John’s side when he passed, and accompanied his brother home. The Regiment gave William the choice to stay home or return to Basra. When he elected to return to see the mission through, William’s personal strength added fiber to the Battle Group. I’d heard soldiers—including senior officers—mention his name with admiration. On October 8, I was eating...

SGT Richard Edwards, a 12-year veteran from Newport, South Wales had served in Iraq during Telic 6 without firing a shot during those six months. During Telic 10, Edwards found himself down at the PJCC, where Iraqi police outnumbered British soldiers by a significant ratio. In late July, while they were waiting for the Brigade Commander Brigadier Bashall to arrive, a couple of shots came in from a neighboring and overlooking building used as a wheat factory. Shots also began coming in from the “Hole in the Wall,” a lateral slit several inches high and about three feet long...

[Colonel Michael Bills and Colonel Stephen Twitty (cigar) on 29 November in Ninevah Province.]03 December 2007American combat leaders ranging from young corporals to veteran colonels like COL Stephen Twitty are cracking the code on Iraq. Twitty commands US operations in Ninevah and his brigade has kept control here with what amounts to a skeleton crew. We’ve had only one battalion in Mosul, Iraq’s second largest city, all year. In other words, less than 1% of our combat power has held one of the most challenging cities in Iraq for an entire year. And now, as Colonel Twitty takes his soldiers...

News Releases Articles Editorials Reports Books Maps Forums Letters Search Permissions Services Links Contact St John's Church Reopens in Baghdad Posted GMT 11-17-2007 21:9:48 Baghdad -- Neighborhood Christians and Muslims attended a mass to celebrate the reopening of St. John's Church in Baghdad on November 15. The Dome Under the Cross: Local Muslim and Christian leaders had prepared the church for his arrival. A Bishop came to St John's Church in Baghdad today, 15 November, where a crowd of locals welcomed him home. They were joined at the service by soldiers from the 2-12 infantry battalion, many of whom had...

Live Thread: Join a FReeper conversation with Honest Conservative and FRiends! Sunday, October 21, 2007 – 10:00 pm EST Click to listen on Freedom Radio Join the conversation. Call 646 478 5613 Proclaim LIBERTY throughout all the Land unto all the Inhabitants thereof. Lev. XXV X Neighborhood Bully