March 2008 Entries
Back at the end of January, I blogged about a little girl named Amina, who was found by U.S. Marines and suffered from a life-threatening heart defect. Being men of action, the Marines went to work finding private donors and sympathetic surgeons, and arranged for Amina to be flown to the United States for surgery.<
By autumn 2007, the trends and indicators from Iraq were so positive that the mainstream media took stories Iraq off the front pages and the evening news and went searching for other negative stories about the U.S. Armed Forces to feed the American people. In October and November there were stories about high numbers of suicides, desertions and divorces among members of our military – and how difficult it had become to attract new recruits. A 17 November 2007 Associated Press: "
Now THIS is news. If it seems out of place for Iraq - that's because it is. And news, as I've said before, exists to report the out of the ordinary. Not sure why this didn't make headlines, because it's really strange.
Provincial Reconstruction Teams are fanning out across Iraq to bring the next phase of progress and healing to that country. These groups of soldiers and DOD civilians are the elite forces most needed now to stake down the gains that have been made. Their weapons? Things like chickens, construction tools and now computers.
Peace Corps began in 1960 as a way for young men and women to make a difference around the world. Since then, more than 190,000 people have served with the organization, working in developing countries on social, environmental and agricultural projects, among other things.
According to this press release, 2000 troops from the 82nd airborne are now redeploying from Iraq back to the states. These troops are not being replaced by American forces - because they've been replaced several times over by Iraqi forces.
"Nobody likes them." The latest over-the-top statement by Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. Not surprisingly, it was Americans he was referring to.
The Washington Post reported last week that Iraqi Concerned Local Citizens groups in Diyala province were abandoning their posts, citing lack of support from U.S. forces. Leave it to the post to sniff out the cloud in the silver lining. The article asserts: