Michael Yon has posted a Public Affairs Release which describes the situation in the town of Baqubah and it sounds promising. This is just one small accomplishment in the vast country of Iraq, but taken with our other victories as of late, could be a stepping stone for things to come.

After the fight to retake an Iraqi city is over, the struggle to reconstruct a functioning government is the fist order of business.

That’s why U.S. and Iraqi forces were excited recently to witness local trucks arrive, accompanied by the Iraqi Army, at a Baqubah flour mill with 560 tons of imported wheat to feed the people of Diyala province.

Some things speak volumes when you consider all the obstacles both our military and the citizens of Iraq face and this statement by the Assistant Governor of the Diyala Province certainly fits in that category. Speaking of Baqubah he states:

“This city is making the transition from a ghost town to what it is today. What’s been done is phenomenal,” Amed said.

Thanks again Michael for keeping us updated.

While Michael Yon is getting some well-deserved rest he is finding more time to write about the war now that he’s not on the battlefield with the soldiers and Marines.

His latest dispatch matches his other fine writing and compares the situation in Mosul in 2005 to now.

This kind of stuff freaks out the enemy: our guys didn’t get them with jets or fancy machines from a distance, but just rushed into them and outfought them. Despite an enemy with perfect surprise, our guys still killed four of them and CSM Pippin was the only American casualty. Countless acts like these around Iraq are a large part of what has given our guys moral authority with Iraqi Police and Army. Before the war, the Iraqis clearly questioned the courage of our fighters. They no longer question the courage of our fighters, or the abilities of our military leaders.

Large numbers of Iraqis detested us after the prisoner abuse stories, and some over-the-top attacks on Fallujah, for example. But through time, somehow the American military has managed to establish a moral authority in Iraq. It’s not the only authority, but the military has serious and increasing moral clout. In the beginning, our influence flowed from guns, or dropped from the wings of jets. Later it was the money. Today, the clout still is partially from the gun, and definitely the money is key, but there is an intangible and growing moral clout and it flows from an increasing respect among Iraqis for our military. Washington has no moral clout in Iraq. Washington looks like a circus act. The authority is coming from our military. The importance of this fact would be difficult to overstate.

Follow the link and read the rest of this excellent post.

Michael Yon has his second of two dispatches up, telling of the difficulty of getting food to the people in Baqubah.

Breaking that wedge. LTC Johnson—who is hardly in these photos—finally makes an overt threat with the weapon he was going to open those doors with. His threat was shameless. Johnson pointed to me saying that he brought the press along so that the world would either see them for what they were: heroes or villains. Perhaps other writers might be offended, or felt used, but Johnson was simply telling the truth, and nothing disarms basically honest people more than shameless truthtelling. In any case, the camera was working. The bureaucrats were not simpletons. They never told me to turn off the camera. To their credit, they were duking it out in front of God and everyone.

Finally they agreed. They had stated their arguments, and not just rolled over, but they agreed to release the food shipments.

There were still hours of paperwork to do. They asked LTC Johnson if he wanted to come back, but we all sensed that maybe they really had not agreed, and doubted whether they were every bit as wiley as they at first seemed.

Hours passed by. We were on the edge of Sadr City where we could get flattened. As the paperwork oozed forward, we ended up sitting with the bureaucrats, listening to war stories from when they had been in the Iraqi Army. One showed us scars from a mortar, the other said he spent years as an Iranian prisoner. The topic of al Qaeda came up and sparked a discussion that I captured on videotape.

While we talked, one of our Strykers outside was attacked with a grenade. Apparently someone tried to throw it in the hatch (sometimes they get lucky), but missed. It was loud, but everyone was okay. The paperwork had just been completed, so this signaled a good time to leave, but LTC Johnson insisted on having his group of Baqubah officials and soldiers leave under the protection of the Iraqi Army.

We waited inside at the COP for several hours, and there I talked with LTC Fred Johnson about the war, and he asked how I thought it was going, and I said that some parts obviously were improving. The new plan actually seems to be working despite the hysterical reporting back home. We need more Tontos in Hollywood, in the media and in the Congress. We’ve got plenty in the military.

LTC Johnson asked what I thought about Petraeus, and when I said “He’s tops,” that’s when LTC Johnson told me about the shooting incident described in detail in the dispatch “Second Chances.”

The loading process was actually faster and smoother than expected, and we returned with dozens of trucks to Baqubah. The bureaucrats had even given extra truck loads as a “gift.” Beware of the creditor. Of course they had launched some plan. I have no idea what it was, but clearly they were up to something. I got word later that even some weapons might have been smuggled into Baqubah in one or more trucks.

When the convoy finally arrived in Baqubah, the local media was there, along with Provincial leadership, and LTC Johnson gave full credit to the Mayor and other leaders right there in front of the Iraqi media. It was straight out of a Bruce Willis movie where Johnson saves the day, then watches from out of the spotlight as the Mayor and Governor get all the credit. Nobody mentioned Tonto.

Go read the whole thing and see what life is like in Iraq for our troops and the Iraqis.

Michael Yon has another of his fine dispatches up telling of what’s going on in Baqubah.

Right now Michael is in Singapore getting some much-needed rest.

In the first of two parts he tells of some of the things going on in Baqubah. The first quote is something from the Al Qaeda Islamic State. Propaganda. Michael quotes their statement and in the brackets and bold tells the truth as he witnessed it:

“The strongest kinds of explosives are awaiting them on the streets and in the allies(sic). [This was true: we lost a soldier to an IED. But our guys caught most of the bombs, in many cases when local Iraqis pointed them out. Others that remain hidden will be neutralized by our engineer and EOD teams in a thorough, methodical process that will continue until the city is cleared.] Snipers of the Islamic State of Iraq are going ahead hunting down dozens of soldiers. They are in control of the high-rise buildings [They were until our guys killed them], and ambushes and traps are awaiting them everywhere. [This was true: there were ambushes and traps everywhere. But our guys killed them, ran them off, or foiled the ambushes in nearly ever case. We did lose one Stryker and one Bradley.] The American Army, in spite of its numbers and equipment, could not penetrate the region except for a couple of minutes to film so as to sell the photographs to the lying media. [The penetration was persistent and pervasive and eventually complete, something captured on film by dozens of reporters who finally embedded for the initial days of the operation. A minor point: the military’s own photographs and videos are always available free of charge to media agencies.] It is during those few minutes that a great number of airplanes were downed. [Completely false.] We are announcing this good news to the nation as the soldiers of the Islamic State of Iraq are basking in their victory in all parts of this and the rest of the provinces [It would be dangerous for al Qaeda to celebrate here in Baqubah, or in Anbar, or up in Mosul, or down in Basra, or in Sadr City. In fact, they are running out of places to peek out from, let alone bask in.], while the Crusaders will not escape this fierce battle but with slit throats and a defeat, the likes of which has never been witnessed.” [There are many American soldiers on FOB Warhorse in Baqubah. They’ve extended their invitation for al Qaeda to come visit.]
4-2 SBCT Daily Intsum

Al Qaeda is using the lack of food as a weapon against the civilians in this area, figuring if they are hungry they will re-join them.

Michael Yon tells how the food was obtained by Americans and Iraqis: (more…)

We like to refer our readers to Michael Yon’s site because he is an on the spot reporter who takes photos, video and interviews Iraqis and American soldiers.

In short, he gives us a feel for the war in Iraq that no one else comes close to doing.

In today’s dispatch he talks of the different weapons at our disposal and the desire to not have civilian casualties to the extent that is possible.

Then he goes into the problems of the Iraqi people just setting up a city or community. Many of the people with the knowledge are dead or gone and it is up to the younger people to try to figure out what to do:

I have wondered now for two years why is it that American military leaders somehow seem to naturally know what it takes to run a city, while many of the local leaders seem clueless. Over time, a possible answer occurred, and that nudge might be due to how the person who runs each American base is referred to as the “Mayor.” A commander’s first job is to take care of his or her forces. Our military is, in a sense its own little country, with city-states spread out all around the world. Each base is like a little city-state. The military commander must understand how the water, electricity, sewerage, food distribution, police, courts, prisons, hospitals, fire, schools, airports, ports, trash control, vector control, communications, fuel, fiscal budgeting, fire, for his “city” all work. They have “embassies” all over the world and must deal diplomatically with local officials in Korea, Germany, Japan and many dozens of other nations. The U.S. military even has its own space program, which few countries have. In short, our military is a reasonable microcosm of the United States – sans the very important business aspect which actually produces the wealth the military depends on. The requisite skill-set to run a serious war campaign involves a subset of skills that include diplomacy and civil administration.

We live far better on base here in Baqubah than many people who are living downtown (though there are some very nice homes), and it’s not all about money. Not at all and not in the least. When Americans move into Iraqi buildings, the buildings start improving from the first day. And then, the buildings near the buildings start to improve. It’s not about the money, but the mindset. The Greatest Generation called it “the can-do mentality.” It’s a wealth measured not only in dollars, but also in knowledge. The burning curiosity that launched the Hubble, flows from that mentality, and so does the revenue stream of taxpayer dollars that funded it. Iraq is very rich in resources, but philosophically it is impoverished. The truest separation between cultures is in the collective dreams of their people.

When I listen to people in these civil administration meetings inventorying the obstacles, giving detailed and passionate speeches about why the things that need to happen cannot, often next comes the tired lament, “You can do these things because America is rich.” This seems like a chicken-egg argument, but it’s not. They will stare at you like a bird. Blinking. Blinking. As if waiting for an answer to a question that seems to forever loop back on itself. “But you are rich! You put a man on the moon!”

Go read his latest dispatch and while you’re over there drop a few bucks into his paypal account so we can continue to get these dispatches from him.

It has been one thing to read Michael Yon’s dispatches, (there is a new one posted today), but quite another to hear him in a live podcast linked at Instapundit.

How interesting it is to listen to Michael speak from first hand experience about the successes of the surge, General Petraeus, Iraq citizens and their opinions of al Qaeda, and his overall take from his first report when arriving in country to present.

I have always maintained one of the reasons I have such respect for Michael is his ability to report as he sees and if that means bucking the powers in Washington from the President down he has done so.

Thanks to the Glenn and Helen Show for providing us the opportunity to share a bit of time with a man many of us have come to trust and admire.

Michael Yon posted two interesting articles yesterday with the first being relatively short with a video included. (This is a follow up to his piece “Bless the Beasts and Children”)

His second dispatch “7 Rules: 1 Oath” can be found here, and I found this one particularly informative.

Michael attended a meeting in Baqubah with American and Iraqi Commanders but also a group calling themselves the “Baqubah Guardians.” If the initiatives pointed out in the article are followed up by action, this could be an impressive success for the population of this city.

Today Colonel Steve Townsend, the American commander of the 3-2 Stryker Brigade Combat Team, presided over a meeting with Iraqi Army officers and former insurgent leaders. The insurgent leaders who seem to be sincerely working toward peace are now collectively referred to as “the Baqubah Guardians.” I was allowed to attend the meeting, but was—understandably—not permitted to photograph or videotape the proceedings.

The rules and oath referred to in the title of this article are all spelled out in the piece itself. My hope would be that if this is successful in Baqubah, it would become a model for the rest of the country.

Michael Yon is usually Sue’s beat, but she said everyone had already been discussing Michael Yon’s latest dispatch from Iraq. Since I’ve been away from all the action and haven’t read any other blogs I thought I’d step on Sue’s beat this one time and talk about this piece.

I want you to read his post because it tells of the remarkable Stryker that has saved so many of our soldiers’ lives.

Here’s an example of what happened when the “General Lee” rolled over a powerful bomb:

As the bomb detonated beneath it, the General Lee arced like a dolphin from the sea of Hell. LT Brad Krauss can be seen flying out like Superman, if you look closely and imagine real hard. PFC Devon Hoch can clearly be seen standing in the back hatch. And that was it. Our guys’ lives seemed to be reduced to propaganda. The terrorists published reports that the soldiers were killed.

The story might have ended in the American press:

Four Soldiers Killed by Roadside Bomb Northwest of Baghdad

Four U.S. soldiers were killed today northwest of Baghdad when their Stryker vehicle was destroyed by a roadside bomb. Names of the service members are being withheld until notification of next of kin. The controversial Stryker vehicle is increasingly under fire by critics who claim that its armor is insufficient to protect troops in Iraq. Elsewhere, Iraqi and U.S. forces killed at least 50 people in Baghdad after three days of fighting in the area around Haifa street. About 130 people have been killed since Saturday. Separately, 27 bodies thought to be Shia were found shot. . . .

But that’s not exactly how it turned out.

Go over and read the story of this remarkable vehicle and its remarkable crew. Look at the video taken by the enemy as the Stryker gets hit and you can hear the shouts of “Allah Akbar!”

But, alas, Allah wasn’t there for the enemy that day but the Stryker was there for our soldiers, and for that I thank God Almighty.

Michael Yon was a guest on Hugh Hewitt’s radio show yesterday. In reading the transcript there were a few points I found interesting.

HH: Now Michael Yon, a lot of people don’t know the significance of Baquba. And so can you explain what peace in Baquba means for the larger war effort?

MY: Well, it’s huge, because al Qaeda had claimed Baquba as their capitol, their worldwide capitol. And you might recall one of the things that kind of upsets people about my reporting is I said Iraq was in a civil war, and I said that way back in February of 2005, and I continue to do so. But when I first wrote that, I was in Baquba, in 2005, and I spent two or three months here. And it was just total…you could see it, and you could see al Qaeda was trying to foment that civil war, because that’s their underlying strategy, is to do that. And so getting, fracturing al Qaeda here, and al Qaeda alienating so many Iraqis, it’s helping us to put a damper on the civil war.

This is why I like to read Michael. While I may not think there is a civil war in Iraq, he reports as he sees and feels. His reports are not dispatched to please politicians or citizens who are motivated by their political affiliations.

One other exchange I found very interesting applied to what is transpiring in Congress right now. The name of the Senator is of no consequence as it could have been any one from either side of the aisle and I believe the answer would have been the same. As a matter of fact, Guss posted an interesting editorial earlier today which I believe is worth a read and helps explain how both sides are running for their political lives from this war.

HH: Now yesterday, Harry Reid said on the floor of the Senate that the surge has failed. Do you think there’s any factual basis for making that assertion, Michael Yon, from what you’ve seen in Iraq over the last many months?

MY: He’s wrong, he’s wrong. It has absolutely not failed, and in fact, I’m finally willing to say it in public. I feel like it’s starting to succeed. And you know, I’m kind of stretching a little bit, because we haven’t gone too far into it, but I can see it from my travels around, for instance, in Anbar and out here in Diyala Province as well. Baghdad’s still very problematic. But there’s other areas where you can clearly see that there is a positive effect. And the first and foremost thing we have to do is knock down al Qaeda. And with them alienating so many Iraqis, I mean, they’re almost doing it for us. I mean, yeah, it takes military might to finally like wipe them out of Baquba, but it’s working. I mean, I sense that the surge is working. Reid is just wrong.

I hope for our sake (meaning the country) and for the citizens of Iraq that Michael is right in his assessment.

Complete interview can be accessed here.

It appears one of the Marines who had been charged in the Haditha case will be cleared of at the very least the murder charges.

It is my hope that the others will also be found to be innocent of cold blooded murder.

It has always been my contention that if any soldier intentionally kills, they should be treated as any civilian would be, but this case was clearly in many aspects a “rush to judgment” and a thirst by the MSM (and Congressman Murtha) to condemn these Marines. I wonder if there will be any apologies forthcoming to LCpl Sharratt.

Also, Michael Yon has posted another dispatch from Iraq. Seems we must be doing something right.

Al-Qaeda on the Run: Feasting on the Moveable Beast

While we were driving in the belly of the Stryker into Buhriz, I asked Abu Ali, “What did you do to al Qaeda?”

Abu Ali said that on 1 April 2007, he and his people attacked al Qaeda in Buhriz for their crimes against Islam. He also said something that many Muslims have said to me: al Qaeda are not Muslims. (Both Sunni and Shia have said nearly the exact same words, at times on video.) Abu Ali said they fought hard against al Qaeda, and on 10 April, they asked the Americans to join the attack. It worked.

Sounds like we must be winning at least some hearts and minds.

And
Courtesy of Jack Army I discovered this link to the Global Incident Map. In looking over the information provided, there are events which I clearly remember reading about and others which I checked out by reading the copy provided when clicking on the incident itself. Just a little something different for those who have never seen anything quite like this.

Professor Reynolds has not only the link to a Michael Yon’s latest update, but also a personal email he received from Michael.

A favorite paragraph of mine in this latest dispatch:

Most Iraqis I talk with acknowledge that if it was ever about the oil, it’s not now. Not mostly anyway. It clearly would have been cheaper just to buy the oil or invade somewhere easier that has more. Similarly, most Iraqis seem now to realize that we really don’t want to stay here, and that many of us can’t wait to get back home. They realize that we are not resolved to stay, but are impatient but to drive down to Kuwait and sail away. And when they consider the Americans who actually deal with Iraqis every day, the Iraqis can no longer deny that we really do want them to succeed. But we want them to succeed without us. We want to see their streets are clean and safe, their grass is green, and their birds are singing. We want to see that on television. Not in person. We don’t want to be here. We tell them that every day. It finally has settled in that we are telling the truth.

After reading both the Professor and Michael I ventured over to Power Line to read their latest. A post from today linked back to one they published on July 3.

We’ve written about the fact that the wire services employ stringers in Iraq, and elsewhere in the Middle East, who are of doubtful reliability at best. Worse, these stringers sometimes have a political agenda. As a result, the “news” that the Associated Press reports as fact has sometimes turned out to be based on little more than rumor, or to be fabricated altogether.

The latest example comes from Bob Owens, who sums up the story at Pajamas Media. On June 28, the AP reported that 20 decapitated bodies had been found in a village near Salman Pak, southeast of Baghdad. If you read the fine print, though, it turned out that the story was based on reports from two anonymous “police officers”–one from Baghdad and one from Kut, some 75 miles from the scene of the alleged atrocity. It was apparent on the face of the AP story that these officers’ claims were hearsay, at best.

Owens details how the story was re-told in subtly different ways by news outlets that picked up the AP account. The Washington Post, for example, “actively obfuscated the distant locations of the anonymous police sources, and instead merely allowed that the came from ’separate commands.’ The Post account also rewrote the story in such a way that it appears that there were three anonymous police sources.”

Owens was no doubt reminded of the infamous “Jamil Hussein,” the Baghdad policeman (if such he was) who long served the AP as a “source” for events all over Iraq, some of which never happened. So Owens decided to investigate by contacting the Multi-National Forces-Iraq (MNF-I) Public Affairs office, and liaisons with the Iraqi Ministry of the Interior Civilian Police Assistance Training Team (CPATT) Public Affairs Office, to ask what they knew of this incident. The upshot was a definitive statement by those agencies that the beheading story was “completely false and fabricated by unknown sources.”

Interestingly, reading the above article led me to another post at Instapundit where the suspicions many have were confirmed by one of todays journalists.

A journalist whose name you’d recognize emails:

Yon’s story doesn’t get attention because it is humiliating.

It is humiliating because it is obvious that we media – and our allies in the state department, the legal trade, the NGOs, the Democratic Party, the UN, etc., - can’t do squat about such determined use of force.

Our words, images, arguments and skills can’t stop the killing. Only the rough soldiers and their guns can solve the problem, and we won’t admit that fact because the admission would weaken our influence and our claim to social status.

As I read the balance of the email, I found myself admiring this person for admitting the faults of the MSM.

For now, I will stick to those who I tend to believe. The boots on the ground, the military blogs and Michael Yon.

Thanks Professor Reynolds for the link and welcome Instapundit readers.

Thanks also to Eric and the readers at Classical Values.

There is an update posted by Michael Yon on his piece entitled “Bless the Beasts and Children.”

It is worth a read and I found one segment of this article particularly interesting.

Update on “Bless the Beasts and Children”
Baqubah, Iraq

As the investigation unfolds more pertinent details, I’ll continue to update the story. But the biggest question rippling across the internet—“Why hasn’t the mainstream media picked this up?”—is something only representatives of mainstream media can answer.

In fairness, several large outlets did publish it online: National Review Online and Fox News were both quick to place the story prominently on their websites. A few others also published excerpts. It was even briefly up on the Drudge Report. On the blog front, Instapundit, Hugh Hewitt, Blackfive, Andrew Sullivan, Captain’s Quarters and many others picked it up.

But for those publications who actually had people embedded in Baqubah when the story first broke and still failed to cover it, their malaise is inexplicable. I do not know why all failed to report the murders and booby-trapped village: apparently no reporters bothered to go out there, even though it’s only about 3.5 miles from this base. Any one of the reporters currently in Baqubah could still go to these coordinates and follow his or her nose and find the gravesites.

On this question of media selectivity, the blogosphere has become incensed that big media mostly ignored the murders, especially given that there are reporters currently in Baqubah. Newsbusters and countless others are on it. More disturbing to many bloggers is that major mainstream players were busted (again) by Pajamas Media just days ago for reporting outright fabrications of a “massacre” that never occurred.

It is a sad day when we must now count on the internet and bloggers to report a story of this magnitude. Is the MSM afraid public opinion might just swing the other direction if they recognize in pictoral form that these thugs think nothing of murdering animals, women, men and yes even children in cold blood?

I can think of no other reason they would shy away from Michael’s reporting. He has given us the good and the bad, but he is not an ambulance chaser. He doesn’t look only for the latest car bomb or ied explosion. He is with units who are involved in battle and points out our successes and failures.

Mr. Yon does not have the answer as to why major media won’t print his work, but he makes them a very generous offer in this piece. I will be waiting to see if any decide to accept.

Once again we are presented with a brilliant piece from Michael Yon, but the photos included are the most violent to date.

They are a clear reminder of what these monsters who call themselves men (Al Qaeda) are capable of. Please proceed with caution as you read. The pictures to which I refer begin in roughly the second quarter of the article. I personally would not recommend children be exposed to these horrific sights, but that of course would be an individual decision.

While I was repulsed by the brutality they show, I am pleased the military allowed Michael to not only take these pictures but make them available to us. Sometimes a dose of reality is good for the soul..these are not insurgents as we have often heard them called. They are cold blooded killers without a conscience. Terrorists plain and simple.

Mr. Yon has entitled this piece,

Bless the Beasts and Children

and I hope someone has.

Michael Yons latest post. I hope he can continue this daily reporting as he has some very encouraging words again today.