Some Good News!

I know you are probably hungry for some good news from Iraq. I will tell you a few stories.
As you know, this is the end of Ramadan week, officially on Friday the 12th. Expect celebratory gunfire. As you should have seen in some of my pictures, we have guys in orange suits living here now. I haven’t seen ‘em captured here like that so that takes a bite out of crime. Also, the high tech equipment here caught 3 boys (when I say boys, I mean MEN) firing off a mortar at us. They were, uh, “swiss-cheesed” as it were. Three more crawled out to help them and, uh, they met a similar fate.

In Mosul, nearby, we got word that 14 bad guys were setting up an IED (Improvised Explosive Device). 2 were not captured, because, uh, they needed burial. But the rest were. This is happening more often--the locals are telling where they know of IED’s buried and helping out. I think they see we are serious about protecting them and we are here to stay. That, I believe, gives them great confidence.

In Fallujah, as you may have read, the bad guys thought they would tough it out and hide in hospitals, schools, and mosques because the Coalition (read American) forces would not touch them before. Surprise! The bad guys were hiding and hiding weapons caches in them and we went in after them. Even blew up a Mosque (Finally!) BUMMER for THEM!!! Thought they had sanctuary but the word came down: the election is over, kick all necessary behind. Very cool, in my book.

So it sounds like they are totally on the run, the people are getting brave enough to turn them in. Pretty soon the word will get out that if you join the bad guys team, you are going to get smoked. It happened in Afghanistan and now…looking better, I believe.

So there is your news. Oh, and “Ding! Dong! The wicked witch…” I mean, Arafat, is dead. King terrorist. He and Saddam reigned about 30 years each. There is much other encouraging goings on here, wish I could share more.

Finally, here is a scary, but happy, story. See picture. Here is what I call a HmV (HumVee) or an armored personal carrier, or what has replaced the jeep in the military. This one is one of the newer, armored type. My team’s job here was to up-armor the older ones to match this kind. Anyway, this one was carrying five soldiers when it went over an IED. It blew the back pretty much off, as you can see. All 5 men walked away uninjured. Now that is GOOD NEWS! And one of what I considered to be a MIRIAD of miracles protecting these fellows. I prayed and prayed for those going into Fallujah. I hope you did too. It works.

Ah, heck, one more. This morning we heard a “BOOM” very close, as is common where we work because it is right next to the city, and they like to fire on us from there. But the Siren to announce ‘Code Red’ never went off. Soon after heard on the radio that the Governor of Kirkuk survived an assassination attempt with a car bomb. No one was killed, although several were injured. I guess that is good news but it sure is interesting to be just about right there with wild things like that happening. Check it out, me thinks the tide is turning around.
Ernie out!