Free Republic

<p>May 7, 2004 -- THE last time I was in Iraq, I met with a delegation of graduate students from Baghdad's best universities. Two hours into the discussion, one student said something extraordinary to me. He likened us to "doctors" and Iraq to a "patient" who needed radical surgery: "You [Americans] have started the operation. We are on the operating table. You can't leave now. You've got to finish," he pleaded.</p>

Damaged oil refinery spouts new lifeStory and photos by Pfc. Chris Jones, 40th PADKISIK, Iraq (August 28, 2003) – A major oil refinery in Northern Iraq, looted and stripped after the war, is scheduled to resume operations and produce 200,000 liters of diesel fuel daily by Sept. 1.In the first week of August, 3rd Battalion, 320th Field Artillery teamed with 1st Bn., 187th Infantry Regiment to supervise reconstruction efforts of the Kisik Oil Refinery. Seventy locals were hired to begin cleaning the facility while employees of Bayji Oil Company began fixing the refinery’s equipment.A daily rate of 200,000 liters...

<p>July 8, 2003 -- The CIA has determined that Saddam Hussein is alive. Funny: It was the CIA that determined Saddam was hiding in a Baghdad bunker on March 20, leading President Bush to begin the war on Iraq two days early with a massive cluster-bomb attack on Saddam himself. Then the CIA heard Saddam was at a restaurant in southwest Baghdad on April 7, and another massive strike leveled the place.</p>