The Cool Blue Blog

A tale of sacrifice

FORWARD OPERATING BASE HAMMER — A routine meeting on Aug. 18 became a saga of tragedy and heroism when one young Iraqi man gave his life to save his family and his friends in the U.S. Army. 

The Soldiers he saved that day say they will never forget the man’s sacrifice. 

The plan was to visit a leader of the al-Arafia Concerned Citizens Program. After a hectic month of raids and route clearance missions, the scouts of 2nd platoon, Troop B, 3rd Squadron, 1st Cavalry Regiment, 3rd Heavy Brigade Combat Team, 3rd Infantry Division, weren’t worried about that day’s particular mission. 

“It was a pretty darn routine day, honestly,” said Staff Sgt. Sean Kane, of Los Altos, Calif., acting second platoon sergeant. “We were going to head to the house and talk with one of the leaders.” 

The scouts had visited the neighborhood before and, according to 1st Lt. Mike Barth, of El Segundo, Calif., second platoon leader, they thought the area was reasonably safe because of the watchfulness of the area’s Concerned Citizens group in the area. 

“He (the leader) is a very good friend,” Barth said. “He is a respected man in the neighborhood. We had sat down with him many times and knew a number of his kids. A couple of his children speak a little bit of English, and we had made friends.” 

In the early evening, Barth, Kane, Pfc. David Menillo, of Fairfield, Conn., the platoon medic, and Josh Berner, of Tehlequah, Okla., Barth’s driver, along with an interpreter, sat down to talk with the leader about the Concerned Citizens and how the platoon could help. 

Barth had a cordon of several Bradley Fighting Vehicles set up along the road to provide security, as well as a small contingent of security personnel comprised of Concerned Citizens. 

“This is a very respected man in the neighborhood Barth said. “He is always surrounded by family. Basically, the whole neighborhood is his family, so there wasn’t a need for extra security.” 

A man approached Barth’s cordon and asked to enter the sealed off courtyard of the house. 

“We had seen him before,” said Sgt. William Morris, of Orange County, Calif., a Bradley Fighting Vehicle commander in second platoon. “Our driver speaks a little Arabic, and the guy explained he wanted to go to his house.” 

The man had far more sinister motives. He walked up to the local leader’s guards and requested to see the leader about buying a house in the neighborhood. Upon hearing who it was and what he wanted, the leader agreed to meet with the man after he had been searched. 

As the guards searched the man, the guards discovered he was wearing a suicide vest. The guards ran toward the leader’s house in an attempt to warn everyone in the courtyard. 

“They all came around the corner at virtually the same time screaming ‘Ali Babba, Ali Babba!’” Berner said. The phrase “Ali Babba” is a widely used Iraqi slang term for a very bad person. 

The next few moments were a blur of motion as Soldiers and Concerned Citizens ran for cover. 

Barth and Menillo ran to a window to see if the threat was coming from the street, while Berner grabbed the platoon interpreter and attempted to get him behind a wall in the courtyard. 

As the bomber rounded the far corner of the courtyard, Kane sprang up with his weapon and started moving toward him. Before he could get off a shot, one of the leader’s sons ran up, wrapped his arms around the bomber and began pushing him out of the courtyard. With his sight picture obscured by the son, Kane could not get off a clean shot. 

As the leader’s son wrestled with him, the bomber detonated the vest, killing both men instantly. 

“My leg was hit, and my Kevlar was blown off along with my earplugs and eye protection,” Kane said. “My weapon flew out of my hand. The next thing I know, I’m face down in the grass trying to get my bearings.” 

Stunned from the attack, Kane attempted to make it to a bathroom in the courtyard for cover. 

Meanwhile, Berner was trying to protect the interpreter. 

“He stopped to see what was going on, and I just grabbed him and tried to get him behind the wall,” Berner said. “I turned right because I was expecting small-arms fire, and the detonation threw me into the wall.” 

Collecting his wits, Berner saw that the interpreter was sprawled out and stunned on the ground. Berner finished getting him behind the wall and thought of the women and children in the courtyard. 

“I just ran back out and started grabbing them,” he said. “None of them were hurt, but I wanted to get them into the house or behind the wall. I didn’t know if we were going to take small-arms fire or anything like that. I yelled to (the interpreter) to tell them to get inside.” 

The detonation threw both Barth and Menillo into the adjacent courtyard wall. 

“For the first 15 seconds after the explosion, everything was real quiet,” Menillo said. “I heard Sgt. Kane yell he was hit and tried to find him.” 

When Menillo got into the bathroom, he said he was shocked by what he saw, but Kane was not seriously injured. 

“I just grabbed his leg and started checking it,” Menillo said. “I moved on to his ankle and didn’t find anything. I got him up. I thought his leg was busted up from where the blast was in the courtyard and where he was.” 

After Menillo retrieved Kane’s gear, Berner started helping him to the vehicle. 

According to Barth, the leader’s son took 90 percent of the blast and ultimately saved everyone in the courtyard. 

The incident was over minutes after it started. 

“The son was definitely a hero for acting the way he did,” Barth said. “His actions saved four American lives that day and the lives of his father and family.” 

Barth believes Kane’s actions also saved the lives of his platoon members. As the bomber was running into the courtyard, the first thing he saw was the muzzle of Kane’s weapon. Barth said he believes Kane’s quick reaction and decisive thinking caused the bomber to lose confidence and freeze up. 

“A lot of things kept that situation from being worse,” Barth said. 

The leader’s son, killed by the bomber, had served chai (tea) to Barth and Kane several times before. 

“He was high-spirited and really believed in what the group (Concerned Citizens) was doing,” Kane said. “I have no doubt the bomber was trying to kill American Soldiers. It was very calculated the way the bomber tried to do it. If he hadn’t intercepted him, there is no telling how bad it could have been.” 

Berner remembers on the ride back, how he and Kane shared a quick smile to let each other know they were all right. 

“He just kind of looked over at me and smiled,” Berner said. “We had been in a roadside bomb incident before that, so this was the second time we had been in that situation. I think we both realized that, as bad as it was, we walked away both times.” 

Even though the incident is over, it has lasting effects. 

Leaders of 3rd HBCT, the Iraqi National Police and Jisr Diyala leaders met with the father to acknowledge his sacrifice and thank him for his son’s actions. 

Both Barth and Kane were present at the ceremony to offer support to their friend and to provide security. 

The father was given a plaque and a ceremonial pair of spurs from Lt. Col. John Kolasheski, of Louden, Tenn., commander of 3-1 Cav. Regt. 

“You cannot put a price on a life, but we would like to give you a few tokens of appreciation for your sacrifice,” Kolasheski said. “This is a tragic event we are recognizing, but it represents an outstanding change in this area.” 

Barth admits it has been difficult talking with the family because of the pain they are experiencing. He has thanked the family for their sacrifice. 

“They will always be friends,” Barth said. “This tragedy has strengthened that.” 

Berner has relied on the experience of members of his platoon to help him with the incident. 

“I’ve talked with Sgt. Kane about it,” he said. “He helped me put in perspective. Being younger, I don’t have the life experience to really understand it. He has been a big help. It's just one of things that I will never forget.”

Moving on

The Democratic leadership in Congress has consistently called for more political progress from the Iraqi Government. Indeed, as indications that military progress is being made by General Patraeus' Counter-Insurgency Strategy, many Democrats and White Flag Republicans have switched from criticizing the war effort to criticizing the political effort.

But upon returning from their Summer break, Iraqi politicians came to an agreement

Iraq's top Shi'ite, Sunni Arab and Kurdish leaders announced they had reached consensus on some key laws that Washington views as vital to fostering national reconciliation. The appearance of Shi'ite Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki on Iraqi television with the other leaders was a rare show of public unity amid crumbling support for the prime minister's government.

The other officials at the news conference were President Jalal Talabani, a Kurd; Sunni Vice President Tareq al-Hashemi; Shi'ite Vice President Adel Abdul-Mahdi, and Masoud Barzani, president of the semi-autonomous Kurdistan region.

Iraqi officials said the leaders had signed an agreement on easing restrictions on former members of Saddam Hussein's Baath party joining the civil service and military.

"They signed a new draft on debaathification," said Yasin Majid, a media adviser to Maliki.

Other officials said consensus had been reached on holding provincial elections and releasing many detainees who have been held without charge, a key demand of Sunni Arabs since the majority are members of their sect.

Majeed said the leaders also endorsed a draft oil law, which has already been agreed by the cabinet but has not yet gone to parliament.

                                                       

But it's not good enough

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid yesterday said Iraqi leaders' agreement on key measures for national reconciliation would not stop Democrats' push next month for a U.S. pullout.

"While Sunday's announcement is a welcome step, it is far short of what is needed to bring about political reconciliation," Reid spokesman Jim Manley said.

But the talking points supplied to Senator Reid on his daily phone calls with the netroots crew and MoveOn.org are increasingly out of step with the public and members of Congress.

A majority of Americans say the United States can win the war in Iraq, but the country is sharply divided along party lines about every aspect of the war, according to a United Press International/Zogby poll released today.

The poll shows 54 percent of Americans said the war is not lost. However, among Democrats, 66 percent said the mission has failed already, compared to 9 percent of Republicans who shared that view.

Those Democrats in Congress who once supported an immediate exit strategy, are turning towards embracing victory

Recently back from Iraq, Rep. Brian Baird, D-Wash., has received an earful of questions about his position on the war since his return to his home district.

The Washington Democrat, who voted against the Iraq war resolution in 2002, now opposes a timeline for withdrawal of U.S. troops from that country....

In May, Baird supported a bill that would have required troop levels to start falling by Oct. 1. But his perspective changed after a visit to Iraq in early August.

He now opposes a withdrawal timeline -- and said he thinks that most of the country agrees with him....

Baird said earlier that he based his decision on private discussions with Iraqi, Iranian and Jordanian leaders and on two observations that he said had been infrequently debated: the chance of regional chaos, should neighboring nations' troops be drawn into the conflict, and the notion that talk of a U.S. pullout has Iraqi political players "retrenching" to maintain their power.

Baird emphasized the danger of an immediate withdrawal, saying he believed the new American commander, Army Gen. David Petraeus, deserved another six months to help Iraqis improve security.

"We have a moral responsibility to the Iraqi people."

And he's not alone.

The question now is, how will the Democratic hopefuls for the Presidency appeal to enough Democrats, who are still largely anti-war, to win their nomination, and then appeal to enough Americans, who are largely pro-victory, to win the General election?

Frankly, I think they will come to regret not only their positions on Iraq, but also the decision to begin the Presidential campaign a full two years before the election.

Bagging the money man

FORWARD OPERATING BASE HAMMER — Elements of the 3rd Heavy Brigade Combat Team’s 3rd Squadron, 1st Cavalry Regiment, conducted a mission recently to deny extremists sanctuary in Jisr Diyala, southeast of Baghdad. 

Insurgents engaged Soldiers from Company D, 1st Battalion, 15th Infantry Regiment, a tank company attached to the 3rd Squadron, with small arms and rockets after Company D Soldiers infiltrated the objective and detained one suspected insurgent.       

According to 1st Lt. Daniel Bell, of San Antonio, 2nd platoon leader, Company D, 1-15 Inf. Regt., speed was essential to the mission’s success. 

“It helped a lot,” Bell said. “We got the cordon set at the same time as we were going in the house. It was a great asset.” 

Catching the insurgent was the mission’s main objective, and Bell said his capture was key to the unit’s success in the area. Soldiers from 3-1 Cav. Regt. captured a high-value individual, believed to be a local insurgent cell leader, earlier in the month.  The objective of this mission was to detain his potential replacement and leave extremists in the area leaderless. 

“Getting him out of the picture took away a major source of money,” Bell said. 

Coming under small-arms fire didn’t slow the unit at all, Bell added. 

“Everyone knew what to do,” he said. “We (returned fire and) allowed the search teams to go about their business. My guys did very, very good. I couldn’t be more proud of them.” 

Other Troops of the 3-1 Cav. Regt. participated in the operation as well. 

“Missions are always chaotic,” said 1st Lt. Mike Barth, of El Segundo, Calif., 2nd platoon leader, Troop B, 3-1 Cav. Regt., currently attached to Company D, 1-15 Inf. Regt. “We had a great rehearsal, but when we got out here things changed and we had to adapt. It was a complex mission, but we got through it and accomplished our mission.” 

No 3-1 Cavalry Soldiers were injured during the operation. 

The 3-1 Cav. Regt. and the 1-15th Inf. Regt. are assigned to 3rd Heavy Brigade Combat Team, 3rd Infantry Division, Fort Benning, Ga., and have been deployed in support of Operation Iraqi Freedom since March, 2007.

R-E-S-P-E-C-T

As is typical of the American Political Class, most especially Democrats, they have little respect for those who have the audacity to think for themselves. Case in point: Senator's Levin and Clinton presume to tell Iraq what's good for them. In turn, they get put in their place.

[Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri Maliki]  said the Democratic senators were acting as if Iraq was "their property" and that they should "come to their senses" and "respect democracy".

But it's not like it's the first time. It wasn't long ago when Senator Biden proposed that Iraq should be broken up into three autonomous pieces, with each piece used to segregate the major groups: Sunni, Shi'a, and Kurd. In a New York Times op-ed piece, he wrote

The idea, as in Bosnia, is to maintain a united Iraq by decentralizing it, giving each ethno-religious group — Kurd, Sunni Arab and Shiite Arab — room to run its own affairs, while leaving the central government in charge of common interests. We could drive this in place with irresistible sweeteners for the Sunnis to join in, a plan designed by the military for withdrawing and redeploying American forces, and a regional nonaggression pact.

Now Biden proposed this as "Federalism" but Federalism isn't racist. And the irony of it is Sen Biden would never encourage Federalism in the US nor would he be for segregation. But more importantly he didn't bother to ask the Iraqi's what they wanted.

Unlike our know-it-all political class, the French are apologizing for their presumptuousness

French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner has offered to apologise to Iraq if he had meddled in its affairs.

he statement comes a day after Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri Maliki demanded an official apology because Mr Kouchner had suggested he resign.

But in America, politics means never having to say you're sorry

Bernie and the Fox

The Left Wing Senator who makes no bones about being a Socialist is on a crowd-pleasing crusade: He's out to discredit Fox News.

Teaming up with veteran Fox hunter Robert Greenwald, maker of "Outfoxed: Rupert Murdoch's War on Journalism", they produced a three-minute "viral video" entitled Fox Attacks in which they claim that Fox News is a tool of an administration that is pounding the drum-beat of War on Iran.

"In the middle of a war, which is going badly in Iraq, in the middle of a war, which is going poorly in Afghanistan, you have the vice president and president now intimating that it may be good public policy to wage a unilateral strike against Iran," Sanders said on a conference call with reporters.

"I think this is absolutely incredible," the Vermont Independent added. "I think it would be an unmitigated disaster."

Now I watch Fox News whereas it is my guess that Senator Sanders does not. And I have not noticed  the network promoting war with anyone let alone Iran.

Of course if they think that reporting that Iran has been both directly and indirectly killing US soldiers in Iraq calling for war, I can understand why they are confused. But in a three-minute, you can take clips from over a year of reporting and make it look like Fox News supports serial killers if you wanted.

One media observer said the video lacked balance and journalistic credibility.

"They are accusing others of doing what they have done, which is to stitch together multiple snippets of video and very short sound bites to make an ideological argument," said Bob Steele, the Nelson Poynter Scholar for Journalism Values at the Poynter Institute school for journalists in St. Petersburg, Florida.

But what would Senator Sanders do about Iran's growing nuclear threat and the very real threat Iran poses to US troops in Iraq as well as the stability of that country and the safety of its people?

"Do I have one right here in front of me? No I don't. But what I can tell you, what would be absolutely counter, what would be absolutely destructive, is a unilateral American attack against Iran."

Which absolutely no one has suggested but which, it seems, Bernie has ruled out

Sanders said he supports an international diplomatic effort to address the Iranian issues.

Perhaps Senator Sanders needs to pay more attention to the news, because this is precisely what this Administration has been doing, along with Britain, France and Germany, for the past two years.

And it hasn't done much good mostly because of Russia who benefits most if the Middle East is taken out of the oil business.

What amazes me is the incredible power Sanders and the loony Left attributes to Fox. Do they really believe that this one station has the power to move the whole nation? And if so, how is this done?

How is it that Fox News has more influence than the New York Times, the LA Times,  Newsweek, CBS News...

Oh, right. On second thought, maybe they do.

Against the tide

Democrats, having committed to a rhetoric of failure in Iraq, are having to retool their message. Even with the combined efforts of major media outlets to cast Iraq as a failure, the word is getting out that the new Counter-Insurgency Strategy is working

Democratic leaders in Congress had planned to use August recess to raise the heat on Republicans to break with President Bush on the Iraq war. Instead, Democrats have been forced to recalibrate their own message in the face of recent positive signs on the security front, increasingly focusing their criticisms on what those military gains have not achieved: reconciliation among Iraq's diverse political factions.

And now the Democrats, along with wavering Republicans, will face an advertising blitz from Bush supporters determined to remain on offense. A new pressure group, Freedom's Watch, will unveil a month-long, $15 million television, radio and grass-roots campaign today designed to shore up support for Bush's policies before the commander of U.S. forces in Iraq, Army Gen. David H. Petraeus, lays out a White House assessment of the war's progress. The first installment of Petraeus's testimony is scheduled to be delivered before the House Armed Services and Foreign Affairs committees on the sixth anniversary of the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, a fact both the administration and congressional Democrats say is simply a scheduling coincidence.

Senator Barak Obama, on the other hand, is swimming against the tide

Senator Barack Obama said Tuesday that even if the military escalation in Iraq was showing limited signs of progress, efforts to stabilize the country had been a “complete failure” and American troops should not be entangled in the sectarian strife.

“No military surge, no matter how brilliantly performed, can succeed without political reconciliation and a surge of diplomacy in Iraq and the region,” Mr. Obama said. “Iraq’s leaders are not reconciling. They are not achieving political benchmarks.”

Of course, the same can be said about the US Congress. But Democracy is built from the ground up, not the top down, as I've explained before, and the Counter Insurgency plan is producing the desired results.

Lightning Hammer update

Operations continue to hunt down al Qaida by clearing Diyala and bringing humanitarian aid

Operation Lightning Hammer continued into its fifth day Aug. 18 as 16,000 Iraqi and Coalition Forces Soldiers worked to secure parts of Diyala province and bring food and medical aid to the people there.
 
On the evening of Aug. 17, Coalition Forces medics and a physician's assistant from Troop C, 6-9 Armored Reconnaissance Squadron, provided medical treatment for 30 families in the village of Abu Tina and distributed bags of rice and flour to each family.
 
The Soldiers also made improvements to the roadways and bridges in the village to improve traffic capacity.
 
Soldiers from Troop A, 6-9 ARS, delivered eight bags of rice and 15 bags of flour to residents near the village of Majjid Shayya as well as four bags of flour each to families in the village of Ar Ramilat.
 
Meanwhile, Soldier from 5th Squadron, 73rd Cavalry Regiment, conducted an air assault into the village of Qubah and discovered two vehicle-borne improvised explosive devices as well as al-Qaeda in Iraq propaganda there.
 
Operation Lightning Hammer is part of a wider array of operations across Iraq to destroy al-Qaeda and other enemy militant groups and restore security and necessary services to the Iraqi citizens. The operation closely follows Operation Arrowhead Ripper, which was a major push to clear Diyala's capital Baqouba of al-Qaeda networks.

Now secure, the capital of Diyala province fires up the economic engine

The Baqouba public flour mill began processing wheat Monday, after being closed for nearly a year, marking the local production of flour in the Diyala Province as a major step toward Iraqi self-sufficiency. 

“This is one more piece to the larger puzzle of providing normalcy here,” said Lt. Col. Fred Johnson, deputy commanding officer of the 3rd Stryker Brigade Combat Team, 2nd Infantry Division. “It’s probably the most important thing we’ve done.”
Five-hundred and sixty tons of imported wheat arrived in a 21-truck convoy at the flour mill on August 16th from Baghdad. 

The grain, imported from the U.S., will be cleaned in multiple processes and milled with a mixture of 25 percent locally-grown wheat. The product will then be sacked and distributed to the local population as part of the Public Distribution System, an Iraqi program dating back to the 1980’s. The distribution program largely collapsed after insurgent forces disrupted PDS operations in Baqouba last year.

The mill is expected to employ around 100 workers in addition to truck drivers. Its addition to the local economy is expected to help lower the price of bread for the people of Diyala province.  The mill is capable of producing 200 tons of finished flour per day.

Agents of unrest

One could argue, and many have, that those who have been calling for a timetable for military withdrawal from Iraq have prolonged the effort there by allowing the enemy to rally its troops with the words "C'mon boys, if we hold on just a little longer, the Americans will leave and all this will be ours."

Many of these same people were against the comprehensive Counter-Insurgency Strategy for Iraq commonly know as "the Surge" and they wanted to pull the plug before it was even started. One such effort was led by Senators Levin and Warner. It was known as the Levin-Warner Resolution. The Bill Stated

(b) SENSE OF CONGRESS.-It is the sense of Congress that-

(1) the Senate disagrees with the "plan" to augment our forces by 21,500, and urges the President instead to consider all options and alternatives for achieving the strategic goals set forth below;

While acknowledging that

the Senate believes a failed state in Iraq would present a threat to regional and world peace, and the long-term security interests of the United States are best served by an Iraq that can sustain, govern, and defend itself, and serve as an ally in the war against extremists;

Clearly they didn't believe "the Surge" would accomplish that.

Senators Warner and Levin recently returned from Iraq and have learned that, in fact, the "Surge" did work.

Sen. Carl Levin of Michigan highlighted improved security in Baghdad and al Qaeda losses in Anbar province as examples of success — a shift for Democrats who have mainly discounted or ignored advances on the battlefield for weeks.

"The military aspects of President Bush's new strategy in Iraq ... appear to have produced some credible and positive results," Mr. Levin said in a joint statement with Sen. John W. Warner, Virginia Republican, after a two-day visit last week to Iraq.

But they are still calling Iraq a failure we should abandon. But now the reason is political. In a joint statement, Senators Levin and Warner assessed

“While we believe that the ‘surge’ is having measurable results, and has provided a degree of ‘breathing space’ for Iraqi politicians to make the political compromises which are essential for a political solution in Iraq, we are not optimistic about the prospects for those compromises,” the joint statement said.

The statement warned that recent meetings among Iraqi political leaders “could be the last chance for this government to solve the Iraqi political crisis.” Should that effort fail, the senators wrote, “we believe the Iraqi Council of Representatives and the Iraqi people need to judge the government of Iraq’s record and determine what actions should be taken — consistent with the Iraqi Constitution — to form a true unity government to meet those responsibilities.”

The problem with this is the same problem we had in the military arena before "the Surge". I mean does anyone doubt that there are elements within the Iraqi Government that are agents of al Qaeda, agents of Iran, or agents of the former Saddam Ba'athists that do not want a central government to succeed along the lines that is in the best interest of the people of Iraq?

Could not the political divisions to some extent be manufactured by these agents of unrest?

If the above speculation has any validity, then it would follow that by threatening a pull out of America on the basis of Iraq not making progress on the national political level would just encourage those agents to be more intractable.

I mean is this so hard to imagine?

Political progress at the national level, in my view, must be preceeded by political progress on the local level. Because only then are there political groups that represent the interests of the local and can coherently petition the national government to address those interests.

The "Surge" is allowing this to take place. But this will take time as each town, city, and neighboorhood becomes free of violence and can focus on a local political life. Once there is a vibrant local political life, this will then feed into the national political life and the extremists will be thwarted.

In early America, the political life of the States preceded the national government and had an important hand in shaping the Federal Government.

Why would Senator Warner, Levin and all those who think the way they do believe it would work any different in Iraq?

And to the extent they continue to threaten the Government of Iraq to end the political squabbling our own Congress seems hard pressed to achieve, only aids the agents of unrest within the government.

Drifting Right

A recent poll shows that Americans increasingly see the "surge" in Iraq as working

In the latest USA TODAY/Gallup Poll, taken Friday through Sunday, the proportion of those who said the additional troops are "making the situation better" rose to 31% from 22% a month ago. Those who said it was "not making much difference" dropped to 41% from 51%.

Further

Gallup's early August poll showed that 31% of Americans said the recent surge of U.S. troops in Iraq is making the situation there better. That's a nine-point increase (up from 22%) since early July....

A majority of Americans do not want Congress to take action on Iraq until the mid-September report of Gen. David Petraeus, who is highly respected.

Yes, General Patraeus was unanimously accepted by Congress as Commander who then almost immediately began to try to undermine his command by attempting to micro-manage the War, and even take away the money and materials he needed to do his job. The public, however, respects him more than Congress or the President

The latest USA Today/Gallup poll, conducted Aug. 3-5, 2007, finds that Americans are more than twice as likely to rate Petraeus positively than negatively -- 47% say they have a favorable opinion of Petraeus, while 21% have an unfavorable opinion.

While Republicans and Veterans think highly of him, the problem for the Congressional leaders and Democratic Presidential hopefuls is that so do Democrats and Independents

Democrats are evenly divided in their view of Petraeus -- 33% rate him favorably, and 31% rate him unfavorably. Thirty-six percent of Democrats do not know enough about Petraeus to rate him. Independents' ratings closely mirror those of the general population.

Now we see Democrats backing away from their "get out of Iraq now" positions

The leading Democratic presidential contenders sounded a note of caution about a precipitous withdrawal from Iraq in a largely civil debate Sunday morning that also returned to the familiar themes of experience and electability.

Biden countered: "If we leave Iraq and we leave it in chaos, there'll be regional war. The regional war will engulf us for a generation. It'll bring in the Shia, it'll bring in the Saudis, it'll bring in the Iranians, it'll bring in the Turks."

Clinton, Edwards and Obama said in effect that they supported Biden's position, cautioning that it will be necessary to leave some troops behind to assist Iraqi forces and Iraqis who have helped Americans on the ground. "This is a massive, complicated undertaking," Clinton said.

Is there a correlation between the public perception of Patraeus, the new situation in Iraq and the turn-around in the Democrats position on the war or are the Democrats just being responsible all on their own 'cause it's the right thing?

Reports from Democrats who have recently visited the front must be considered

Top Senate Democrats have started to acknowledge progress in Iraq, with the chairman of the Armed Services Committee yesterday saying the U.S. troop surge is producing "measurable results."

Sen. Carl Levin of Michigan highlighted improved security in Baghdad and al Qaeda losses in Anbar province as examples of success — a shift for Democrats who have mainly discounted or ignored advances on the battlefield for weeks.

"The military aspects of President Bush's new strategy in Iraq ... appear to have produced some credible and positive results," Mr. Levin said in a joint statement with Sen. John W. Warner, Virginia Republican, after a two-day visit last week to Iraq.

Mr. Levin joins a growing chorus of Democrats — including 2008 presidential hopeful Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton of New York and Senate Majority Whip Richard J. Durbin of Illinois — who say the troop surge has produced benefits, but who also bemoan failures of the fledgling Iraqi government they have repeatedly criticized for taking an August vacation.

First they were for the war, then they were against it, now.....

Well, it's hard to tell.

Sgt. Jeff Hunter

Marine Reserve Sgt Jeff Hunter received a Silver Star and said “I honestly don’t believe I did anything all that heroic.”

In May of 2005, then-Cpl. Hunter’s platoon planned to surprise insurgents with a dawn assault in Haditha’s market district. Instead, it was the enemy who first engaged the platoon in a brazen ambush. As gunfire erupted, Hunter’s squad moved to take out insurgents firing from a nearby house. As the squad leader entered the home, an insurgent shot him in the chest. Hunter saw the man down, sprinted inside while spraying the area with his M16, grabbed his comrade, and moved him out of the house – at which point he used his own body to shield the injured man. Hunter, now in charge of the squad, rallied his men and led them back into the house – clearing it with bullets and grenades, killing one insurgent while capturing three more.

Two months later, Hunter found himself in another fierce gunfight, a battle that lasted for four hours and meandered through the streets of Cykla, a village near Haditha. After enemy fire from a hostile house hit a Marine, Hunter’s platoon engaged the enemies, forcing them to flee to a second home. By the time his squad cleared the second house, the insurgents had already left. Two of the Marines approached a couple of nearby cinder block buildings, and one of them was suddenly hit by insurgents firing from a fortified position. Hiding behind a three-foot-high wall, Hunter returned fire and shot two insurgents. He also made two attempts to extract the wounded Marine. The shooting was too intense, so Hunter ran through the line of fire and across the street to an M1A1 tank – which he guided to strike the enemies’ position. The tank eliminated the threat and allowed the platoon to retrieve its mortally wounded comrade.

With regards to the second event, Military.com reports

"Right as he went to knock, a heavy-machine gun shot him through the door," Hunter said. That kicked off a four-hour firefight between nine insurgents bottled inside the house and Hunter's platoon.

When some of the insurgents fled to another nearby house, Hunter maneuvered his squad closer, using their own cover fire to move to a rooftop overlooking the second house.

A couple hours into the firefight, the other two squads were still engaged in the at the first house, but rounds were no longer coming from the second house. When Hunter's squad cleared the house, they found an empty rocket-propelled grenade launcher, but no shooter.

They moved to the back yard where livestock were frantically running around following the hours of shooting going on around them. In the midst of the chaos, two of Hunter's Marines broke off to search two small cinder block buildings for enemy fighters.

As Lance Cpl. Christopher Lyons - Hunter's closest friend in the platoon - crossed the threshold of one of the buildings, he was shot by an insurgent fortified inside.

Hunter and his Marines took cover in a room of the building, which was still under construction. The wall was about three feet high, with huge portions missing for windows, Hunter said.

Crouched against his portion of the wall, about 15 feet from the insurgent's position, "I could see the muzzle flashes from the doorway [from] the guy shooting…while the AK-47 was just taking chunks out of the wall," Hunter said. 

"It got pretty scary there for a minute."

During that fight, Hunter "shot two enemies and made two unsuccessful attempts in the face of enemy fire to retrieve a wounded Marine," the Corps release said.

Hunter "then ran across a fire-swept street to link up with a M1A1 tank, guided it's fire and directed it to breach the building," the release added. "This action neutralized one insurgent and allowed the extraction" of Lyons, who had been mortally wounded.