14 July 2008

The war continues to abate in Iraq. Violence is still present, but, of course, Iraq was a relatively violent place long before Coalition forces moved in. I would go so far as to say that barring any major and unexpected developments (like an Israeli air strike on Iran and the retaliations that would follow), a fair-minded person could say with reasonable certainty that the war has ended. A new and better nation is growing legs. What's left is messy politics that likely will be punctuated by low-level violence and the occasional spectacular attack. Yet, the will of the Iraqi people has changed, and the Iraqi military has dramatically improved, so those spectacular attacks are diminishing along with the regular violence. Now it's time to rebuild the country, and create a pluralistic, stable and peaceful Iraq. That will be long, hard work. But by my estimation, the Iraq War is over. We won. Which means the Iraqi people won.

I wish I could say the same for Afghanistan. But that war we clearly are losing: I am preparing to go there and see the situation for myself. My friends and contacts who have a good understanding of Afghanistan are, to a man, pessimistic about the current situation. Interestingly, however, every one of them believes that Afghanistan can be turned into a success. They all say we need to change our approach, but in the long-term Afghanistan can stand on its own. The sources range from four-stars to civilians from the United States, Great Britain and other places. A couple years ago, some of these sources believed that defeat was imminent in Iraq. They were nearly right about Iraq, although some of them knew far less about Iraq than they do about Afghanistan. But it's clear that hard days are ahead in Afghanistan. We just lost nine of our soldiers in a single firefight, where the enemy entered a base and nearly overran it.

The news from Afghanistan is reason for pessimism. For some more optimistic news, please look at these statistics from Iraq, and remember that if we could turn things around in that country, we might be able to do the same in Afghanistan.

Copies of my new book Moment of Truth in Iraq are in distribution, but this is the only place to get signed copies. Moment of Truth is available on Amazon.com and Barnes & Noble.com. It is also available in Barnes & Noble and other major bookstores. Download this handout to give to your military exchange, local bookstore or library so that they may order the book.

Please support this mission by buying Moment of Truth today, or by making a direct contribution. Without your support, the mission will end. Thank you for helping me tell the full story of the struggle for Iraq.

14 July 2008

This from Command Sergeant Major Ken Preston, Command Sergeant Major of the Army. Here is a great opportunity. Please disseminate this to all veterans.

Very Respectfully,

Michael

In this edition of my leader book notes I ask for your support to the National Museum of the U.S Army. The museum is a tribute to the service and sacrifice of our Soldiers since 1775. It is a national landmark for the Army’s history and heritage.

No history of our Nation is complete without telling the incredible story of the Army and the American Soldier. Our Country’s heritage is one of freedom, an inalienable right that was not given to our people, but won with great effort. Nor is our freedom for the future a guarantee, hence the Army’s fight for freedom must be told to the American people and passed to future generations. The National Museum of the U.S. Army will tell that story. It serves as an educational experience to engage the American public and as an inspiration to the Soldiers of today. Just as important, the Museum will preserve, study and interpret more than 750,000 artifacts and works of art dating back to the days of the Continental Army to present day. The vast majority of these rare and priceless artifacts have never been seen by the American people.

The National Museum established a Registry of the American Soldier to provide an opportunity for anyone who served in the Army to have his or her name and service history placed on record at the Museum. If you served, you owe it to the American people to show your service in the registry. If you have a family member who served in the Army, living or deceased, you can register their name and service history. The Registry will remain on permanent public display at the Museum and on the internet for those who can not visit in person.

The Army will build the Museum and visitors’ center, complete with interactive exhibits and other exciting displays at Fort Belvoir, Virginia. The museum’s campus will feature a memorial garden, parade ground, a venue for ceremonies, reenactments, lectures and educational programs.

The Museum Foundation currently has financial support from over 60,000 individuals, corporations and foundations. They have received supporting resolutions from the VFW, American Legion and the Association of the U.S. Army.

I am asking your support to encourage your Soldiers to register their profile with the museum. Your support is essential to the success of this valuable Museum project. I have attached a copy of an example profile currently featured with the Museum. Visit the Museum’s web site to register.

We owe it to the American people to tell the Army and Soldiers’ story. Thanks for all that you do for our Soldiers and for America’s Army. Army Strong!

13 July 2008

The news came to me in Nepal that Tony Snow had died. The words came with a jolt followed by sorrow. The best that can be said about any American is that he died in service to the people of the United States of America, and to our friends beyond our borders. Tony Snow did just that. Though Tony must have been in pain, his correspondence to me was always upbeat and positive and wise. The President chose well with Tony. He will be missed, but his service will be felt. Tony Snow was a Great American, whose spirit is stronger now than ever before.

“It had become a place of darkness. But there was in it one river especially, a mighty big river, that you could see on the map, resembling an immense snake uncoiled, with its head in the sea, its body curving at rest afar over a vast country, and its tail lost in the depths of the land.”

Joseph Conrad, Heart of Darkness

Journey Into Darkness

July 2008

There were informers everywhere. In the hotels, in the restaurants, near the docks and on the river. And so, in addition to the natural dangers of the journey, there were the dangers of the military junta.

The team would consist of eight people: seven Burmese and one American. I was supposed to be part of the team, but was stuck in Thailand after having been refused a visa.

At the arranged time, on 10 June, the first coded message pinged out from the American, whom I will call Charlie Marlow. "Charlie" was in Yangon when he sent the message to "Translator", who contacted "Manager", who contacted "Cook", as well as the four other crew members. At about 10:30 p.m., all had assembled in the darkness on the banks of the Irrawaddy River. The Burmese Navy was patrolling the Irrawaddy further downstream, and a number of foreign journalists had been recently deported after broadcasting embarrassing stories from the delta. There were stern warnings to the locals not to facilitate entry or movement of foreigners to the region. There was talk that the military had stationed at least one soldier in nearly every village to report on any contact with outsiders.

The engine on the small boat was loud; it hammered away in the dark. For the next six nights the engine would provide the background music for uneasy slumber where in some places only the ghosts of the victims accompanied these travelers. The riverboats in southeast Asia are legendary for the vermin residing in their cracks and holds. At night the roaches, spiders, and sometimes even snakes, crawl out of their hiding spaces, sometimes causing panic to uninitiated travelers. Charlie had been doing business in forlorn places like this for almost twenty years, and had developed a healthy fear and respect for tropical insects and rodents, so he had the boat fumigated before the journey.

Approaching government or Navy checkpoints, Charlie would hide beneath the tarp, but nobody was manning the checkpoints, and the boat passed without incident downriver, pulled by a current which originated far to the north, conveying the occupants toward an uncertain fate. By sunrise they had traveled dozens of miles farther than the military rulers permitted foreigners to go unescorted. The Cook, a superstitious Catholic of Tamil Indian descent, made breakfast, and then at about 8 a.m., the team had their first landing at a village on the eastern edge of the disaster zone.

The Manager filed this after-action report:

We left Yangon on the 10th of June at 10:30 pm. We arrived at Alpha village at 7:45 a.m. At 8 am we held a meeting at Alpha monastery.

After a long discussion which took about 3 hours, we came to an agreement on the following point.

(1) Rice seeds are desperately needed so, we promised to donate then 40 bags of seeds. Each bag full of seeds cost 10000.00 Kyats.

(2) School was completely destroyed students had nowhere to attend school. The solution-to convert the monastery into a make-shift school after making some repair work. I think around about $700 US.

(3) Small tractor needed. We didn’t promise to give on as our budget is limited.

The villagers had been very happy to see help coming, and to see an American delivering aid from his own pocket. And so they gave the visitors a mess of crabs, as well as a humble and heartfelt farewell, and the team boated to the next village, another 3 hours south.

The Manager wrote:

In the second village called "Bravo" village. We held a meeting round about 2 hours on the boat with monk leader "Zulu" and 2 head men. They needed fishing boats.

(1) We’ll give them 3 boats on lucky draw system to those fishermen whose boats were damaged beyond repair. (Boat price round about $500 US)

(2) To give 500000.00 Kyats for repairing the damaged monastery.

Note: 30.5.2008 private donation 5 small tractors.

And so going into the second night, the boat had traveled about 107 miles in the first 24 hours, and the Cook and been cooking along the way.

That night, he boiled the crabs, which the Burmese crew did not eat, but Charlie and the others enjoyed. It reminded Charlie of his childhood on the east coast of the United States, where children gathered crabs from the estuaries. Charlie waxed nostalgic with the crew, all the while being pulled by forces both man-made and natural to the southwest, under the melancholy, hazy eye of a half-moon, in which no sign of things to come could be ascertained.

On 11 June, the team stopped at several villages. The locals were friendly and welcoming. Despite the reports, in most of the villages there were no soldiers. In the villages where there had been a soldier, Charlie stayed hidden on the boat. In most villages the radios had either been destroyed during the massive tidal surge or their batteries were dead, but the people knew that the United States Navy had been waiting with ships and helicopters. Charlie could only imagine the images in these villagers’ minds of giant men with giant machines, poised just beyond the nautical horizon, who could deliver them from the repressive grip of a decaying regime in the blink of an eye. To a man, the villagers very much wanted to see the United States come in to help, and were disappointed to learn that the American Navy had sailed away after the Myanmar government did not allow them to deliver aid, which was pre-positioned in the holds of ships in the thousands of tons, with twenty-two helicopters on board the flotilla ready to act. But American and other international assistance were turned away by the junta.

While the war in Iraq seems to be rapidly winding down, Iraqi life becomes more and more interesting: Click Here

Journey into Darkness

Part I of II

One man’s devil is another man’s demon

June 2008

Myanmar, Thailand, Singapore

Cyclone Nargis was born over the Bay of Bengal on April 27, 2008. Just five days later it swept through Myanmar. The military rulers of Myanmar estimate that some 134,000 people are dead or missing, while others believe the numbers to be much higher. Due to the secretive policies of the regime, the world may never know the extent of damage and loss of life caused by the cyclone.

Not only has the junta kept the truth from its own people and the rest of the world, they also turned back nearly all foreign aid and restricted media access. The silence of its reclusive and mysterious leader Senior General Than Schwe was sickening. A stunned international community was poised to respond with significant aid resources if the junta would just open their country to the outside world. Instead, the generals demonstrated that maintaining power, and perhaps just saving face, was more important to them than anything, even their own people’s lives.

Though I was in Florida at the time, a longtime and trusted friend, whom I have worked with in other conflict zones, was in Myanmar before and after Cyclone Nargis. He reported to me that, although large numbers of people were still in dire need of assistance, having lost their homes and livelihoods in the storm, the Myanmar government was still forcing local fishermen in the region to pay a ‘licensing fee’ for subsistence fishing in the Delta region. America, France, Thailand, India and other countries offered immediate assistance. The U.S. even dispatched Navy ships and helicopters laden with thousands of tons of relief supplies. Yet, while the people continued to suffer, most of the aid was restricted. The junta would only accept relief flights landing at Yangon International Airport, where until late May, supplies were handed over to junta representatives on the airstrip. The United States was generous in its assistance, with C-130 flights bringing relief supplies from a staging base in Uttapao, Thailand. Yet after weeks of waiting, our Navy ships sailed away, after the junta refused to allow them to help. Still, we kept helicopters ready in Thailand should the junta change its mind, and we continued our C-130 flights, extending the hand of friendship to a regime that spouted propaganda against outsiders. The United Nations and other multi-lateral agencies and Non Governmental Organizations mobilized every resource they could as quickly as possible and some of them played a key role in saving lives in the early days after the cyclone.

When the United States, the richest country in the world, suffered horribly during Hurricane Katrina, the world gave us financial assistance. I first heard about it while in Qatar taking a break from the Iraq War. Our friends in Qatar offered $100 million dollars. Kuwait offered half a billion dollars in cash as well as oil products. United Arab Emirates offered $100 million. Bangladesh offered a million (where does Bangladesh come up with an extra million bucks?). Cambodia: $20,000. India: $5 million. China offered more than $5 million. Sri Lanka – besieged with its own problems – offered $25,000. Nepal, Sri Lanka and Mongolia offered help. And our former enemies in Vietnam offered $100,000. There is no telling how much aid actually reached American victims, but this list of international pledges is stunning: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/9282598/

The aftermath of Katrina was another demonstration that our wealth and power cannot protect us from natural disasters (and governmental incompetence). It also demonstrates how the rest of the world can come to our aid when we need help. And instead of hurting our pride, this assistance was greatly appreciated.

But what about Myanmar? International donors were trying to get in the country, but the junta was prohibiting aid workers, doctors, journalists, and other foreigners from entering the worst zones of the Irrawaddy River delta, where entire villages had been obliterated. Stories of homeless orphans were coming out of Myanmar, as children had lost their parents and their homes at the same time. According to the various private, informed reports that I saw, the majority of the killed and missing were women and children. The only real source of support for the people were the Buddhist monks, as well as aid from within the country from private citizens, who though still largely poor, were observing the time-honored national tradition of giving aid to those less fortunate. Much of this private assistance has been coordinated through religious organizations, the only truly legitimate civil society structure left in Myanmar. In this case it was the Buddhist monasteries, since the affected area is almost 100 percent Buddhist. The monks and other community leaders were distributing what aid they could get, taking in orphans, and silently standing up to the government through their actions, showing solidarity with the people of the Irrawaddy delta. The junta responded with more venom, and now even aid from private Burmese citizens has been discouraged. A number of leading organizers were arrested, including the high-profile political satirist U Zarganar.

I followed events in Myanmar through the news and my own sources. Then I got a call from Singapore, asking me to get to Thailand immediately -- a small relief/reconnaissance team was assembling to head into the Irrawaddy delta. There were unsubstantiated reports that the Myanmar government had warned that any foreigners heading into the delta would face a $3,000 fine, and five years in prison. A number of rumors circulated about arrests and a further clampdown on information from the region, as well as continued restriction of access to the cyclone-affected area. I have known the leader of the relief team for some twenty five years. He asked if I would take a chance and slip into the delta and bring the news home. Over the past couple years, my friend has been awarded about $100 million dollars worth of construction and other contracts in conflict zones. He had been traveling to Myanmar for nearly a decade, bringing back news of the junta, but also the simple and very friendly people who had won his respect and fondness. He had been in Myanmar just before Cyclone Nargis.

A day after getting the phone call, I was on a jet. Soon I was in Thailand. On 9 June, I went to the Myanmar embassy in Bangkok to apply for a visa, but when the government worker behind the glass learned I was American, he nearly slammed the window shut. The man would not consider issuing me a visa; he never looked at my application, even though others were getting visas.

My friend decided to push in alone. But though he’s an outstanding international businessman, he’s a terrible photographer, and this story needs to be told with pictures. So just hours before he was to board the flight into Myanmar, I gave him forty five minutes of camera instruction. Now, mind you, that’s like giving forty five minutes of flying lessons to someone on the tarmac, and then saying “Good luck!” He also packed $15,000 in cash to bring some initial aid to those who have not been reached at all (of course, they need much more), but the primary mission was to do a serious reconnaissance and bring back information to the world.

His photographs will be published in my next dispatch: The River, Part II: JOURNEY INTO DARKNESS. These pictures say more than words can ever convey.

In the meantime, for more information about Myanmar, please visit:

http://www.irrawaddy.org/

Copies of my new book Moment of Truth in Iraq are in distribution, but this is the only place to get signed copies. Moment of Truth is available on Amazon.com and Barnes & Noble.com. It is also available in Barnes & Noble and other major bookstores. Download this handout to give to your military exchange, local bookstore or library so that they may order the book.

Please support this mission by buying Moment of Truth today, or by making a direct contribution. Without your support, the mission will end. Thank you for helping me tell the full story of the struggle for Iraq.

By Jim Maceda, NBC News Correspondent

Dora, in Saddam’s time, had it all – a power station and oil refinery provided jobs and its large bungalows hidden in date palm groves drew rich, powerful Sunnis and their families to this southern suburb of Baghdad.

But Dora fell on hard times at the start of the war in 2003.

When I visited Dora about 18 months ago, it was with the U.S. 1st Cavalry Division, before the surge of U.S. and Iraqi forces into Baghdad began. The once bustling "gateway to the South" was a ghost town. It smelled of cordite, an explosive powder.

Sunni residents were in hiding; Dora’s Shiites were dead or had fled to other provinces; its many Christians – doctors, architects and other professionals – had also fled to escape the sectarian killing. The insurgent town had become an al-Qaida stronghold. But that wasn’t the only threat: Shiite death squads, masquerading as National Police, had murdered and maimed so many Sunnis that the 1st Cavalry had to force the police out of their precinct and cordon off the area.

It was a very different Dora that I saw this past week, once again embedded with U.S. forces – this time with the 4th Infantry Division. Life had returned. Dora’s famous Friday open market was bubbling with people, produce and color. No one looked afraid.

Working together

U.S. troops, who now live in an outpost right in the middle of town, were not the only force patrolling the streets. So were the infamous, primarily Shiite, National Police, as well as the so-called "Sons of Iraq" – local volunteers, all Sunni, who were mostly former insurgents. It was something quite remarkable I was seeing for the first time: U.S., Shiite and Sunni armed forces cooperating for the general good.

Sunni residents, who wouldn’t have dared to be seen talking to members of the National Police a year ago, were now complaining to them about rising food and fuel prices in the market or asking for advice.

"Before we all suffered from a triple threat – al-Qaida, the militias, and sectarian kidnappings," said Alladin Hussein, a former major in Saddam’s Army, who I met in the market. "Now we are living in stability and security. It’s like a precious gem, something very fragile that you have to take care of."

Lt. Justin Chalvko could be called "Mr. Dora" as far as Iraqis here are concerned. He is the face of the U.S. presence in the area – he lives in the local U.S. Army outpost and leads daily patrols through the market with his platoon. He knows many residents by their first names, and jokes with them in his broken Arabic.

Chalvko said the changes in Dora since his arrival six months ago are "like night and day." But he’s no fool.

"Even though it’s good now," he warned, "it’s only been good for four or five months. People are starting to move back into the area, but it’s like everyone’s walking on eggshells still. They want to make sure that it’s for real, it’s not just something temporary."

Sure, the hundreds, perhaps thousands, of 12-foot high, 10-ton blast walls that now surround – and isolate – Dora help keep al-Qaida at bay. But local Dorans don’t seem to care. In fact, most Iraqis I asked about the blast walls said that they actually felt freer these days with the concrete barriers and joint patrols to protect them.

Chalvko walked us past Dora’s reopened parks and replanted gardens, past its new library, its primary care clinic, and high school.

Bank open for biz

He explained that, at first, people just wanted security. Now they want services. He then led us to one service that had just opened last week – the Dora branch of the Rafidain Bank. A bank! I hadn’t been inside a functioning Iraqi bank in years. The last Rafidain Bank branch I was this close to was burning out of control on Baghdad’s Haifa Street during those chaotic days just after the fall of Saddam.

We went inside. There were a dozen or more customers, one in a wheelchair, counting small piles of Iraqi dinars they had just withdrawn or were about to deposit. Tellers, mostly women in head scarves, were busy filling out bank slips and attaching paper clips to deposits. The manager, all the while, was pacing back and forth, smiling nervously, from his office to the tellers and back. I guess that being a bank manager in Dora is not the safest of jobs, no matter how many troops or blast walls surrounded you.

But, it struck me that the very presence of a bank was a symbol of change. Dorans could now avoid traveling through interminable checkpoints, across Baghdad, risking their lives to deposit or withdraw money for loans on houses or cars or new businesses. They could do all their business right here, in their own neighborhood.

"Instead of looking to the Americans to help them out," said Chalvko, "they can come here. It’s a sign that things are going in the right direction."

How many Doras are there?

Covering the war in Iraq is often about analyzing the trend lines. We’re all looking for the elusive "turning point" – that gauge that ultimately allows us to measure victory or defeat.

One of my Nightly News editors in New York, Robert Dembo, summed it up nicely, "I guess the real question now is: How many Doras are out there?" And I’ve got my own new question: "I wonder just how long Rafidain Bank will stay open?"

We shall see.

Jim Maceda is an NBC News Correspondent based in London. He has reported on the war in Iraq since the U.S. invasion in 2003 and is currently on assignment in Baghdad.

Copies of my new book Moment of Truth in Iraq are in distribution, but this is the only place to get signed copies. Moment of Truth is available on Amazon.com and Barnes & Noble.com. It is also available in Barnes & Noble and other major bookstores. Download this handout to give to your military exchange, local bookstore or library so that they may order the book.

Please support this mission by buying Moment of Truth today, or by making a direct contribution. Without your support, the mission will end. Thank you for helping me tell the full story of the struggle for Iraq.