http://operationgive.c5host.com Operation Give : Blog http://operationgive.c5host.com/frontlines/2003/3/23/letter-from-a-marine/ FRIENDS ARE BORN, NOT MADEThis is a poem being sent from a Marine to his Dad. For those who take the time to read it, you'll see a letter from him to his Dad at the bottom. It makes you truly thankful for not only the Marines, but ALL of our troops. THE MARINE We all came together, Both young and old To fight for our freedom, To stand and be bold.   In the midst of all evil, We stand our ground, And we protect our country From all terror around.   Peace and not war, Is what some people say. But I'll give my life, So you can live the American way.   I give you the right To talk of your peace. To stand in your groups, and protest in our streets.   But still I fight on, I don't bitch, I don't whine. I'm just one of the people Who is doing your time.   I'm harder than nails, Stronger than any machine. I'm the immortal soldier, I'm a U.S. MARINE!   So stand in my shoes, And leave from your home. Fight for the people who hate you, With the protests they've shown. Fight for the stranger, Fight for the young. So they all may have, The greatest freedom you've won   Fight for the sick, Fight for the poor Fight for the cripple, Who lives next door.   But when your time comes,  Do what I've done. For if you stand up for freedom, You'll stand when the fight's done   By: Corporal Aaron M. Gilbert, US Marine CorpsUSS SAIPAN, PERSIAN GULF =0D March 23, 2003 Hey Dad, Do me a favor and label this "The Marine" and send it to everybody on your email list. Even leave this letter in it. I want this rolling all over the US ; I want every home reading it. Every eye seeing it. And every heart to feel it. So can you please send this for me? I would but my email time isn't that long and I don't have much time anyway. You know what Dad? I wondered what it would be like to truly understand what JFK said in His inaugural speech. "When the time comes to lay down my life for my country, I do not cower from this responsibility. I welcome it." Well, now I know. And I do. Dad, I welcome the opportunity to do what I do. Even though I have left behind a beautiful wife, and I will miss the birth of our first born child, I would do it 70 times over to fight for the place that God has made for my home. I love you all and I miss you very much. I wish I could be there when Sandi has our baby, but tell her that I love her, and Lord willing, I will be coming home soon. Give Mom a great big hug from me and give one to yourself too.Aaron Please let this marine (and all our military) know we care by passing his poem onto your friends even if you don't usually take time to forward mail...do it this time! Thanks, If this touched you as much as it touched me, please forward it on. Let's help Aaron's dad spread the word ... FREEDOM isn't FREE someone pays for you and me..... Sun, 23 Mar 2003 18:57:00 EST http://operationgive.c5host.com/frontlines/2009/12/29/how-it-really-is-in-iraq/ The following is a document written by my Iraqi contacts in Baghdad sent to me in emails, regarding the current state of affairs there. I have not changed their wording, only corrected their spelling, so please read it carefully to understand what is being said. This is a very complicated situation in Iraq, involving a lot of players and participants. Nothing is as it appears on the surface, so simplistically  categorized as a sectarian conflict, as the news would have you believe. We need to see things the way they are and for what they are. This is really all about power and money, orchestrated by greedy corrupt individuals.   Leaving Iraq would result in a catastrophic tragedy like we have never seen, affecting all the Iraqi people and the world. This would create a great void that no one would be in a position to stop Iran from filling. They have already begone their strategic planning that would make this inevitable. The are many evil forces manipulating the situation in Iraq, from Al-Qaeda to Iran.   We need to start realizing what is at stake here and what would be the consequences of an immediate pull out that the majority of people are demanding. A pull out would be interpreted as a defeat. A defeat in Iraq would bolster the moral of our enemies and bring the conflict with terrorists ever close to our door step. We would also put at jeopardy the security of the world's economic life blood namely oil. We would ultimately lose the trust and confidence of every freedom loving people in the world making future missions of support all but impossible.     Please spread this through the Internet to everyone you know. We must educate and inform our people to what is really happening over there. We cannot be short sighted in our decision making, for our children will reap the consequences of our uninformed decisions.   Do your homework and educate yourself and then help to educate others. Don't be a blind follower.   Thanks Chief Wiggles Thoughts From Iraqis:  Chief: You can’t start anything of what you just said in your email, the reasons are: A-We have Sunni extremists controlling the west side of Baghdad (in the areas of Ameria, Gazalia, Yarmook, Mansoor, Dawoodi, Adel) most of them are linked with Al-Qaeda people as they are represented in the government by their political parties which settled inside our neighborhoods and started running their dirty business of assassinations and terrorizing people...they are wining personal gains by displacing thousands of families from the actual citizens of Baghdad by calling them Shiites and taking over their homes as they are running a huge sectarian campaign in the media by saying Shiites militia are killing Sunnis while no body and I say nobody can walk or drive safe in these areas, their extremists gangs are every where (the always use teenagers to carry out these operations) that is why they threatened students first not to attend to school, schools stopped in these areas and the government cant reach there(now the schools are empty as the terrorists are using the school buildings to hide their weapon and bombs and operate their plans and attacks in destroying the city by using the teenagers who now has no schools to go to (basically instead of giving them books to read and educate themselves they are giving them AK47 and improvised explosives devices) and issued fatwa’s to abandon civil life and every thing related to the foreign culture like(cloths, modern house designs, art, music, shops, DVD’s, etc...) as it is right for them to occupy them and sell every thing and make living out of it because they consider it war profiteers, and they are using the mosques as strongholds and that is were they are torturing people.   b-we have Shiites militias and gangs controlling the other parts of Baghdad they are getting their power and influence from their parties that is in the government and the financial and administrational corruption in the government institutions that is controlled by these parties they are also doing killings kidnapping and they target civilians thinking they are wealthy because these civilians live in houses and they are not, using street bumps and criminals to carry their attacks and they are nothing but thieves, as all of their criminal activities covered by religious representatives in the government and the parliament.   c-we got the funding that is coming from the neighboring countries to keep this situation as it is and make it worse (financial fun and media support which is saying nothing but lies and force sectarian war on people) to carry their agendas from both (Iran, Saudi). Jordan is steeling all of our resources since 1991and they are playing nasty, Syria is scared to death for the destiny of the Ba'ath party that is why they are in the game and playing cruel...   These are the main 3 stories from my point of view to what is really happening in Baghdad   So don’t ever think to start anything till you clean the city from the killers and their strongholds from both sides and shut down their satellite channels and don’t tell me that this is not freedom and not democracy (they are abusing this word causing all this killing and destruction in the name of freedom and democracy) they should be punished ...provide a healthy environment and solid ground to build on... if keep the situation as it is and the killers and the criminals and thieves gets to run away with every thing they commit then it is like you did nothing and they will come back, and the situation is going to go down and down again, and I don’t know till when the American forces can take that, you will reach a point and find yourself that you had it with this situation...and that is the fatal moment...for every body (Iraqis and Americans)   1-take away the political parties from our neighborhoods have  them find another areas in the desert to build their parties there or may be have them settle in camps with camels next to them because the are no good for anything but that and killing...   -yes you can build on women but how can you free the Iraqi women from all of what we said before -all the medical care and equipments of small industry is going to go with the wind because political parties are going to rub every thing and nothing is going to reach the citizens just like oil products and services like electricity, water every thing is going to be sold in the black market.  -grand peace to the city first and hold on it like you raise a baby and watch it grow the right way...this is the main thing to do first...clean Baghdad from all this crap...and believe me we have very skilled and smart people I mean the actual citizens of Baghdad and we love to serve our country to death but this is how the situation ended...young men in my age should carry the responsibility of building future to my country, not religious, not old men who carries 1400years of hatred in their hearts and want to solve this problem in our lives...trust young men, new generation away from all the political and religious parties...young men are full of energy and willing to build this country away from war...trust young educated men by choosing them carefully, build them to lead this country to prosperous    Regards   Dear Chief   there is a gap between the two cultures here which led to isolate each side from the other, Iraqis were isolated from the whole world for 40 years, and they are trying to communicate now and follow up at least they are trying...but the Americans never ever tried to start communication with Iraqis (I mean citizens) for 4 years nobody ever learned how to speak Arabic here in order to communicate...parties are pushing un educated and low skilled people with faked master degrees and PhD. to apply in the sensitive positions in the government and even in the International Zone (iz), and no body is ever willing to check whether if their documents are true or not, so that means we have stupid people with power to run the country and give the wrong advise to what ever match the interests of the party they belong too... that is one, two last December American forces were running a raid on my neighborhood they said that they were looking for a Kurd who carried out attacks against MNF as he came and hide in one of the houses, but when they did the search they didn’t find him so what they did is that the surrounded the entire block and went in each house and destroyed it, they reached to my house as I was listening to the destruction of the neighbor’s houses coming closer and closer to my house I opened the door and saw the American forces jumping to my garden as they pointed all of their weapons on me, as I put my hands up and started to talk to them in English at loud :don’t shoot I have a woman and a child upstairs...every body was shocked at that moment it is a miracle he speaks English and that what saved my house from being destroyed but that didn’t calm them down they said get every body out side woman, children, old men and women, and babies...my son was only 40 days old and he spend 3hours on the street it was very cold night and he got sick...not only that they have Arab translators which they are so mean they care nothing but to humiliate Iraqis the translator knocked me down as the American soldiers didn’t understand nothing from the conversation because it was in Arabic as they pointed all of their weapons to my head...because the they didn’t want to listen and he told the soldiers that I had an attitude...I replied to the major that I didn’t have an attitude as he was surprised that I was speaking English very well... they lost the trust of the people because so many people turned against Americans right away...this is a minor level that I am talking about here and you can imagine what is the problem with all of what is going around Iraq...and the terrorist and the criminal is getting released couple of months after that because the parties start to talk about the human rights of those terrorists, you can you put your self in our shoes and feel the way we feel? what about our rights...criminals have rights...parliament members have right and they are next to god and they are untouchables and they are destroying the country, they are even not attending the sessions of the parliament taking vacations and they are getting paid thousands of dollars each month as the people are starving and getting killed every day...is this democracy is this freedom... no chief... and there is one thing that is very dangerous happening these days, I know that Iran and Saudi has its influence in Iraq but do we have to pay for that?...citizens in Baghdad were living civil life till religious leaders invaded Baghdad and Americans are watching and giving them power as they accused people who are living in Baghdad that they are Shiites and displaced them from their homes and is it right to kill them and that the mahdi militias are killing the Sunnis in return and also displace them...both of the two sides are killing the citizens of Baghdad and the media channels are feeding this crazy hunger for blood...but the citizens of Baghdad had nothing to do with that and they are paying for it, why? why killing students, why killing educated people , doctors, engineers, national sport champions, literatures, agricultural...this is not our war why are we forced to be involved in it? What about our rights?!!!...dose anybody care?! Don’t leave Iraq till you fix what has been destroyed or America is going to lose every body's trust... Use your machines and industry to start in the iz and spread to all of Baghdad with magazines, movies, computers, and clothes (they are forcing the people to wear scarves and vales in the streets of Baghdad or else people are going to get killed)  , shows, music bands, singers, create civil life and start to attract civil people back to the city you will win peace by doing that and let all the people of Baghdad see you do that...radicals and extremists cant live in such environments they are going to find themselves as outsiders so whether they are going to leave the city or isolate them selves and it is going to be easy to control them but if the war continues they always are going to find the environment to feed on our blood and make fortunes in the name of god. You want public opinion If you go down to each house in Baghdad and ask them what do you thing of America? Or what do you think of the American forces? They yare going to give the same answer: America did nothing but to destroy our country...why? because there is no civil life left...no services no security and no trust...but still the people want to see something good and real people are hungry for such a thing and I don’t know why I guess we are that stupid after all...we still believe that things can change and what amaze me is that Bruce Springsteen once said in one of his songs: “after each hard day people still find a reason to believe” End this terror   Regards   Dear Chief:   I appreciate your last email, but what are you asking me here is so strange, and I don’t know what to say... the best thing I can come up with to answer your questions is to re invade Iraq again and start from scratch again and act like Americans this time and don’t do  the same mistake of democracy and freedom again and work only with the actual Iraqi people after bringing them back to their homes... that if you want to build a solid ground this time and eliminate the religious leaders and close the Arab media satellite channels...we didn’t practice freedom not because we don’t know how to live free ...No, but agendas of their countries are killing us every day as every body watching and nobody cares, so if you want to succeed stop the interference of Saudis, Iranian, Syrians, Jordanians, Egyptians by closing the borders...do that then you can secure the land from terrorists and militias by expanding the international zone (it is so funny you pick a small spot and isolate yourself from every body, loosing communication with the actual citizens of Baghdad, loosing trust with the people of Baghdad by leaving them to the terrorists and militias with no protection) how do you think that you can establish industry when you have no body to trust, or no body trust you anymore....I am not saying to open the international zone I am saying expanding the radius of the international zone (IZ) step by step to include all of Baghdad and create civil life based on international standards...but isolating the international zone and getting smaller and smaller and leave it to the government which they are the only once that have protection in this country because they are living inside the green zone and never dare to leave it...as they are the once that are killing us... I believe this can help but for me and my family we don’t have much time till that happens , we are going to be dead by then and we only live once, we lost a lot, I think we deserve to life in peace for every thing that we have seen, and if you want to help me chief take me to America...I can be more helpful to you there if you want to work on such a thing believe me when I say that every body here are saying that I am skilled and have improved my self wont be trouble for me to find a job in any company and I can make living by just writing stories and books about what happened in Iraq...and I cant tell you the way... you have the industry ...you have the companies... and you can do it if you just say I will do it(when I say you that means America) America has to say we will build Iraq and act on it... I am stuck inside I have no power and I lost my house and I am loosing faith watching every body is leaving and dying and killed I am a stranger in my own country, I had to pay 500 dollars in order to get my passport and the blessed government is re issuing the passports every two months and abuse the citizens and make a lot of money, I don’t think I can help in here it is useless it seems that it is a curse to be born as an Iraqi and to live all of your life chained to that title, in another word chief I am not a human being I am an Iraqi and what makes it worse is that I am a good one and I was raised to love this land... I wasn’t like that I was full of spirit but it seems that I am turning to be bold like “Name”...you remember him chief   I don’t know what to tell you ...I am sorry...I wish I can help...I did the best I could, even tried to build a healthy environment and I did but things went down so bad, and I am not responsible for it, I did my part of the job as a citizen like no other did here, but my life and my family's life is on the line here and I don’t want to take any chances. But I wish for this nightmare to end one day and be able to go back to the house that I build and raise my kid and provide a better future for him, but it seems that I won’t be able to do that in here.   And can you be more specific in your questions chief this is bigger than me,.... thanks I don’t need anything..., the only thing I want is to go to the states and that is the easiest part in the whole equation.   Regards   Hi Chief: What is the news? Anything new? I know what are you going to say but I can’t help it...it is just my desire of getting my family out of this hell and I can’t help it... I am waiting for something, anything, I lost another one of my relatives last Thursday... gangsters shut him dead in front of his house because he works at BIAP, and the car bombs are every were in the city, and everybody is scared and freaked out of what is happening in the city, lots of blood and killing and the sight of the coffins started to become a very normal activity it is happening all day long, people are getting killed by hundreds every, and you see the dead bodies first, next thing in the early morning you see caravans of coffins carrying them and then car bombs strikes again and the story goes on and on and on... couple of weeks more if we made in one peace we are going to need a psychiatrist for every thing that we are going through. Just tell me anything. I am loosing my mind here, going to work every day and seeing all what is happening and I guess it is just my luck that kept me  alive so far and then tell my self and trying to pretend that all of this is going to end one day but then I reach the point that tells me who are kidding this blood spilling is going to last for eternity, and politicians doesn’t care they are taking vacations and getting paid thousands of dollars for killing us, what am I suppose to do I even asked everybody that I worked with here to find me a way out but every body told me that it is far away higher than us... and that we will see what can happen. I am loosing it chief I feel like my rounds are about to be over and I am just waiting for the bell to ring or who knows may be it is going to be a knocked down.   I wish you all the best Regards and blessings   Dear Chief: Thank you for your concern. We must have Capital and stability; however you may start to provide 24 hrs protection of oil pipes and electricity towers. This will give us billions of Dollars every year and by doing this you will create thousands of jobs which depend completely on continuing of electricity. You paid billions of dollars for building schools ,clinics, bridges but a lot of corruption happened with these donations ,do you now why? because the supervision of these projects were to the Americans and since the Americans didn’t know the real cost of the different materials and they were depending on the interpreters from the other side , made these billions vanished and what encouraged the contractors also were that they knew that they are responsible in front of the Americans only, so it was very easy to cheat and fraud you. To start a healthy start again ,you should seek for clean hands whether these hands from the Americans or from the Iraqi side, but always depend on Iraqi clean hands  to supervise and watch the Interpreters. encouraging small business in south and in Kurdistan is promising but you need to be sure that these funds should not managed and controlled by the local council in different municipalities because this is where the corruption start. Most of These councils came to power by forgery and they reflect the parties in Baghdad now. Also you should classify the needs for projects in every region and all this can be done if you ask the help of people who know the country ,honest, clean and trustworthy people. Yours   Dear chief: No one denies what you and the coalition in general did in Iraq especially to the children of Iraq, yet it seems that the problems in Iraq are much bigger than we expected. Yes, mistakes had been made and we share our part of the responsibility. For the last 3 years, many plans , proposals and solutions had been experienced but with no tangible success, so what shall we do? I see the solution comes with one package to manage the problems in Iraq and in the whole region. It’s very wrong to deal with Iraq in separation from the problem of Iran, Syria and the extremist’s parties in Lebanon , Palestine, Wahabis in Saudi Arabia and above all Al-Qaeda in return Syria can show real actions to stop the logistics support to the terrorists group coming to Iraq from one side and to stop their motherhood to Hezbollah in Lebanon and to Hamas in Palestine from other side. As for internal situation in Iraq , I think that we need first ;to move the Americans troops out of  the cities, also to give the Iraqi government full power to move their troops as the higher commander of the army wish and to allow the Iraqi government to purchase what the Iraqi army need from weapons ,tanks ,artilleries and fighters, etc.........   One last thing, we should know and work on this fact that we (the Iraqis and the Americans) are in our weakest point and it’s not for both of our interests to keep challenging and threaten every one with the stick and forget the magic of the carrot. I hope that I made my point very clear .keep in touch and God bless you  Dear chief: Nice to hear from you again. Hope your well  and your family too. Dear friend, bare me a little bit To tell the story of whole nation like Iraq ,you need a life time to talk about it not to stay there for months. your problem(especially the Americans) that you believe you know every thing and you may know but not every thing and this is what we and you are facing in Iraq now. .... Tue, 29 Dec 2009 18:49:00 EST http://operationgive.c5host.com/frontlines/2009/12/29/interviews-with-our-military-in-iraq/ Most of you receiving this personal letter know me either because you are the leader of or with a Military Support or Veterans Group, you have a free link from our website to ours, you are a Talking with Heroes Sponsor, you have been a guest on the Talking with Heroes Program. This letter is not being sent out through a mailing list. It is being sent to each of you individually. I believe that each of you regardless of what your personal politics are, you support our troops and their families. I would not doubt at all that most of you have at one time or another said: “when are we going to hear some of the good things our men and women are doing in Iraq or Afghanistan”? We now have that information directly from our men and women in the military serving in Iraq. I began the Talking with Heroes program back in December 11, 2005. All the interviews from then till this past Sunday are on our website in our past shows/archives. New people who have recently heard about Talking with Heroes are going way back and listening. We have had as many as over 36,000 listening on Sunday nights recently and those numbers continue to grow.This letter is to invite you to take the news release at the end of this letter and send it out to all your supporters, volunteers, staff, employees, friends, family, etc. Please send it out with a cover letter from you about you and why you think they should listen to what our men and women have said to all of America. We now have an opportunity for millions to hear these interviews. It is time now for all of us to join together and get this information out to millions of Americans. It is time for there to be no doubt for any of our men and women who put everything on the line every day… for them to know that America is finding out about their successes and the good that is happening in most areas of Iraq. Veterans Groups…. You have a structure similar to the military - where you can let your rank and file members and supporters know about announcements quickly. Every veteran I talk with no matter again what their personal politics are, they are glad to hear these stories finally getting out. We hope you will see the importance of you getting this information out to your veterans all across America. Military Support Groups…. You have volunteers and corporate and organization supporters. Between all of you receiving this information…. Millions could find out about these interviews quickly and have an opportunity to listen. Ministries, Corporations, Individuals…. Who do you know who have a loved one serving in the military? Who do you know who are veterans, who support our troops?  You could give them an opportunity to know about this. A promise was made in Iraq on both trips to many of the military who we met and interviewed… that we would do everything possible to get what they had to say out to millions of Americans. We need your help to do that. Thank youBlessingsBob Calvert, Hostwww.talkingwithheroes.com BELOW IS OUR NEWS RELEASE:   February 8, 2007FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE TalkingWithHeroes.Com Second Tour Interviews From Iraq Airing on the Internet and Cable Colorado Springs, Colorado - Bob Calvert, Host of the Talking with Heroes Program and Jim Martin, CEO of Altitude Sports and Entertainment in Denver (A Regional Cable Company) were in Iraq January 2007 interviewing Military Personnel and Iraqis. Talking with Heroes is not about politics. It is about offering our military personnel an opportunity to share their stories. We are also about helping to support our men and women in the military while they are deployed and after they come back. Military Personnel have also requested that we ask the American People to remember and thank the families across our great country, who have a loved one(s) serving our country.  The interviews from Iraq show that the training in Iraq is working and the proof is in the interviews with an Iraqi Air Force General and his Colonel, an Iraqi Army Officer, as well as over 40 military personnel with the United States Air Force, Marines and the Minnesota National Guard. Bob Calvert and Jim Martin were embedded in Rawah, Iraq (In the Al Anbar province) with the Marines and the Iraqi Police, living with them in the middle of the City of Rawah. They were also embedded with the Minnesota National Guard Military Transition Team and the Iraqi Army as well as being with the Air Force Military Transition Team at Sather Air Base near Baghdad. They filmed convoys they were on including at a New School opening in Rawah, and also a Foot Patrol.  "It is with great honor that we are able to interview our men and women and bring back to the American people, their mostly untold stories." Calvert says.  The first of the interviews began airing on the Internet Feb 11, 2007 when America heard from Air Force Major Wright, from an Iraqi Air Force General and an Iraqi Air Force Colonel. Those interviews as with all our interviews can be heard in archives 24 hours a day. Information is being added to the www.talkingwithheroes.com website daily as to who was interviewed and the dates that their interviews will aire.Altitude Sports and Entertainment has released dates for the first of the edited interviews that will begin airing on Cable TV Feb 21, 2007 and continuing initially into April 1007. Altitude is a Regional Cable Provider based in Denver, Colorado providing cable access in 10 states in many hundreds of cities. Altitude is also available to some DishNetwork and DirecTV subscribers across the nation. Those wishing to watch on their TV’s should check the www.talkingwithheroes.com website or their TV Guides. All Americans are encouraged to let others know about these interviews from Iraq..... Tue, 29 Dec 2009 18:57:00 EST http://operationgive.c5host.com/frontlines/2009/12/29/thoughts-from-an-iraqi/ DEAR CHIEF  Thanks very much for your e-mail .Really I feel happy when I saw it .Tell me please about you because I miss you & your entire friend I hope all of you is ok. Your first question is about my  positive suggestions & ideas to help my people .you know chief the first thing if we want to do to help Iraq is to prevent the Iranian intelligent & all the people who work with them from Iraq and to stop all armed party (we must not forget the Kurds) because also they do a lot of trouble to have there  own country in north of Iraq .That's not all but there is many people like ( abed al azez al hakem )who want to do Iraq is part of Iran   The important thing chief  must your government listen to the voice of Iraq people whom they want their Country to be stable and they can found them in any where in Iraq but they only listen to the people whom they not help Iraq.  We all in Iraq want our country to be a good one but the people in( green zone) they did not want that and they killed any one want to help his country .YES chief I want to be part of the solution but the question can you do that ???or did the Iranian let you do that I say that because I know that Iran make a cover on the government and they do only what they want   IF you sea my previous e-mail you can understand that & I want to  work together to come up with a solution to help my country.... Tue, 29 Dec 2009 18:52:00 EST http://operationgive.c5host.com/frontlines/2009/12/29/testing/ Testing the from the front section.... Tue, 29 Dec 2009 18:47:00 EST http://operationgive.c5host.com/frontlines/2007/3/23/a-soldiers-letter/ A Soldier's Letter        Date: Fri, 23 Mar 2007 06:08:34 -0600Subject: 23 March 2007 Friday, March 23, 2007Hi All,Life has been a little exciting around here the last two weeks, but nothingto extraordinary. I will say that the Spring Offensive is underway.We recently did an operation out in a valley close to here. It was an all day mission with the Afghan National Army, some Afghan National Police,Romanian Forces, Special Forces, US combat forces, and some ETT's. Wesurrounded villages and then searched them. There were six villages they searched. It took all day long. I was with LTC Slaughenhaupt in the commandpost located outside of each village searched. We would sit and wait forthem to clear the villages and move on to the next village. As soon as they would clear and move we would move forward also. There was littleexcitement.There was some excitement, don't get me wrong. At one point we were sittingan open field. We could see for a couple miles in each direction. We had just positioned ourselves and I got out of the vehicle. The ANA with uspointed to some men moving through a field off in the distance. There was agroup of ANA soldiers maneuvering towards the men. I was standing outside the Hummer watching them trying to locate the men of whom they were talking.Next thing I know the ANA out in the field fired a shot at them with a highcaliber weapon. Their rules of engagement are a little more relaxed than ours. I guess the men panicked and ran. This caused the ANA to fire a rocketpropelled grenade at the men. That makes quite the bang, even at 500 yardsaway. Once the men began to run the ANA opened up on them with a machine gun. By this time I was in a kneeling position with my rifle in case the ANAbehind me decided they wanted to get in the fight. They were a good 500yards away. I still could not see at whom they were shooting. The four men got away. We assume they ran up a river bed back towards the village.After a while we found out the Taliban had escaped the village and had eyeson us sitting in the open. They were maneuvering to hit us with something. We showed them, we moved. It would have taken mortars to hit us. We werequite a ways away from any kind of hill, riverbed, or terrain that wouldhave masked any close approach by the Taliban.The blocking force we had on the other side of the valley did manage to have a little excitement. While in position watching the villages they took firefrom a cave that was up on one of the mountain sides above them. TheRomanians were not happy with that. They opened up with their high caliber weapon loaded with high explosive rounds. If someone managed to make it outof that cave they would have been in a world of hurt.The missions are not without comedy. One of the captains inside the villagereported that a man in a black cape (meaning Afghan Robe) was escaping and they were in pursuit. He then realized how funny that sounded and tried toredeem himself. It was too late. Someone had already told Rosco P. Coltrainnot to kill him it was Batman and he is on our side. We asked if the man had a big "T" on his chest for "Talibanman." Poor Barrett still has not livedthat one down. A day or two later at staff meeting CPT White took a pictureof Batman and put a big "T" on his chest and gave it to LTC S. in a targeting folder of the latest high value target.I am happy to say that we made it through the day without any injuries. Thesad news is someone tipped off the Taliban of our operation and they got outof the area before we even rolled in. The village elders would not say anything, but we found that kids can be bribed very easily. They will spilltheir guts for a little candy. We were so mad to find out there is a leak inthe ANA forces.The day was nice and it was crappy by way of weather. The sun would shine then the winds would pick up. The clouds would move in and make itmiserable. It was a cycle that lasted all day long. When we headed back toApache that afternoon the wind was blowing. It had not rained in quite some time so the moon dust was back. We were covered in dust by time we arrivedat Apache. It was good to eat some dinner and get in the shower.The rains came that evening. It rained off and on for two days. It managed to settle the dust down, but once again everything is back to a mud hole.The sun came out yesterday and it was a clear warm day today.The 21st was the Muslim New Year. We started the day off with a smallcelebration with the ANA. They had some speeches and then had the celebratory man dance. I told you about the man dance in my letter when Iwent to Kabul. Some of the ETT's with me said that the Afghans have norhythm. I am glad I am not the only one that notices this.We returned at 1230 for lunch with the ANA. It was the typical lunch of rice, beef, chicken, vegetables, flat bread, and a pudding. I ate verylittle. The Afghans can put away the rice. They would fill the plates clearfull of rice expecting us to eat it. I just was not in the mood for rice. I did try the pudding and it wasn't bad. I think it too was made of rice. Ididn't dare eat too much of it for fear of the after affects.The Afghans drink the whey (SP?) off cheese. It is a common food for theAfghans. I had been warned to not eat it because it is nasty. The ANAleadership was trying to convince LTC Slaughenhaupt to drink it. Hal and Iwere down there chuckling. He kept looking at us shaking his head. After he tried it guess who he stuck in the hot seat to try it. Yup, you guessed it,Hal and me. He brought the bowl down and sat it between us and said, "No, Iinsist these two have the opportunity to try it." Okay, I couldn't laugh at him and refuse to try it myself, so I did. Talk about nasty! It tasted likeyogurt fermented to the extreme. One taste of that made me swear off evertrying that again. I still have to question from where the dairy product came.The Spring Offensive is definitely under way. There have been a number ofattacks on coalition force's convoys, ANA, and ANP the last couple of days.There were two attacks on Highway 1. It was a pretty bold move. They took on a big convoy. On one of the convoys a bullet ricocheted and hit a US soldierin the Kevlar helmet. I heard it gave him a concussion. I did get a reportthat he is doing better.I week or so ago the boss was planning to do a nighttime bunker rehearsal. We have so many new people on the FOB we need to practice how to react torocket attacks and direct fire attacks. LTC S. and the Sergeant Majordecided to do this bunker rehearsal in the dark to make people realize it is a challenge in complete darkness.I was talking with Sergeant Major (SGM) Ortiz around 7:45 pm. I asked him ifhe was going to do the rehearsal that evening. He said no. He then told methe boss is going to do it at 4:00 am. I thought he was pulling my leg. He told me to ask him myself. The boss came in the room so SGM asked him whattime he was going to do the drill. The boss signaled to me with fourfingers. I told him we can't do that because it interrupts my sleep. I also thought we should do it at that time because I had received reports aboutpossible rocket attacks on our FOB. I wanted to make sure everyone knew howto react. The boss thought about it and asked the SGM if we should do it now. The SGM said yes. The boss said okay and told him to hit the siren. Heset off the alarm and we called everyone to the bunkers. This was around7:55 pm. I was glad he did the drill.I went to my B-hut and got my gear on to play the game and returned back to the TOC to find everyone there playing the drill. We started doing ourchecks and waiting for people to call in with their accountability. Peoplewere coming and going.As I was standing in my office I thought I heard a whistle that sounded exactly like a rocket. I thought to myself, "What was that?" It sounded toofamiliar. I have mentioned in past emails that I will never forget the soundof a 107mm rocket in flight. I thought someone was mimicking the sound. Sure enough, one of the towers called in and said there was an explosion nearLagman. My classified phone rang and it was the S2 cell at Lagman asking ifwe heard the explosion. I told them I heard the whistle. Jay then told me that one rocket had just hit outside there perimeter at Lagman. All hellstarted braking loose. Our little drill just became the real thing.I got on the loud speaker and told everyone to stay inside the bunkers that our drill just became "real world." The big laugh after that was the IntelGuy called that one! The boss kept saying to me, "I am not going to hear theend of this for the next six months." I told him, "Not this one." At that time I became the resident expert. The boss asked me what I thought weshould do; because I have been here before during rocket attacks. I told himhow long to wait then I told him to have everyone man the walls in case of direct fire.After we felt the danger had passed we stood everyone down. Kevin White andI started running from wall to wall telling everyone to stand down. Wedidn't want to announce it over the loud speaker so the Taliban could hear we were no longer at the ready stage. The key leaders then went to themeeting room for an After Action Review (AAR).The boss started the meeting off by saying, "I am going to get this outright now and say Brent called this one." That is when Tex responded by saying, "That confirms Brent is Taliban."What makes people a little nervous is I have been fairly accurate latelywhen it deals with threats, weather, or gut instinct. I appreciate the factthat I have had good intelligence reports. The Arghendab River claimed another couple of vehicles last night. I toldyou about the river in an email back in December. If you remember the emailwe decided to cross the river early in the morning with night vision goggles in order to avoid an attack.Some of our ETT's and coalition forces have been delayed returning to FOBLane because of the level of the water due to spring run off. The teamdecided that they would be able to cross it yesterday. They tried and failed. A seven ton ANA truck crossed and bogged down in the river. One ofour Hummers was right behind it. The Hummer also bogged down in the water.They called for another ANA seven ton to come down and help them retrieve the vehicles. I don't know all the details, but I do know that they hookedup the Hummer to a seven ton and started to pull it out. They did okay untilthe seven ton driver turned the wrong way and hit a huge hole; which pulled the entire seven ton truck under water with the Hummer in tow right behindit. All that is showing now is about six inches of the top of the seven tonand some antennas. They tried to pull them out, but they are hooked together. Luckily, no one was hurt.I sat down with my ANA counterpart yesterday and asked him his views ofAfghan history and to explain to me why the Taliban have such a strong holdon the people. I found out that it is a vicious circle. I asked him how come the Taliban have so much control now and 30 years ago they were a minority.He explained to me that the Russian invasion and turmoil of Afghanistan gavethe Taliban the upper hand.The radical Islam faith (Taliban) was able to crush the Mujahadeen fighters after the war with Russia because of the constant fighting and losses theMujahadeen took again the Russian. It is kind of like Iran right now. Therewas a power vacuum. The Taliban were able to let the Mujahadeen do the fighting and weaken them to the point when the opportunity came along theTaliban crushed the Mujahadeen fighter and stepped right into power.Once the Taliban were in control they forced the people to practicereligious rules. The Taliban oppressed the people so much they becameuneducated, religious radicals, and ignorant to science, technology,history, and advancement. The country of Afghanistan took a huge stepbackwards. The people cannot read so they cannot study the Quran and really understand their religion. They have to listen to the radical, falseteachings of the Taliban Mullahs. It is pure brainwashing. They teach thatanything done to further the cause of "Islam" is okay in the eyes of Allah even though it is against the teachings of the Quran.Under the Taliban rule they fought poppy growth and drug trade. Now theyneed the poppy money to finance their cause. The uneducated poppy growershave been taught by the Taliban that the western countries are here to take over Afghanistan like the Russians did. In order to fight this they musthelp the Taliban; which includes taking down the current AfghanistanGovernment. The Taliban pay them money to grow their poppies and also help fight the coalition forces, because it is necessary for the growth of Islam.The Taliban also give money to the local Mullahs and they preach the Talibanreligious message. When the farmers see the drug eradication efforts it reinforces the Taliban anti-western propaganda. The poppy production in thiscountry has risen 600% in the last year. The Taliban's informationoperations is much more aggressive than the coalition forces' information operations. The more we fight and kill the Taliban the more we reinforcetheir movement. That is why the coalition forces are working so hard torestore power, water, education, and economic trade under the current Afghan Government; in order to give them credibility and establish a freeAfghanistan.It was an interesting lesson he taught me. I am no expert on Afghan historyso I cannot verify all details. By looking around I tend to believe a lot about what he taught me. The good news is we are making small steps and theTaliban are losing ground day by day. It will be a battle that will lastmuch longer than we want to admit. It will take money, time, security, and education. Many of these people have little to no education.I passed the seven month mark in country a couple days ago. We are on thedownhill side of this mission. I will be going on leave soon back to thestates to see my family and spend a little time at home. I am excited to seemy children. It will be ten months away from them when I return home on.... Fri, 23 Mar 2007 18:58:00 EDT http://operationgive.c5host.com/frontlines/2007/3/29/news-from-iraq/ 3/29/2007 - KIRKUK REGIONAL AIR BASE, Iraq (AFNEWS) -- The Iraqi airforce is taking off once again with the help of U.S. Air Force Airmenwho serve with the Coalition Air Force Transition Team in Iraq.At IAF Squadron 70 in Basra and IAF Squadron 3 in Kirkuk, Iraqi airmenfly intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance missions over oil pipelines and other areas of interest, all the while keeping an eye outfor insurgent activity."They protect the oil pipelines and infrastructure, and perform generalcounter-terrorism and intelligence gathering," said Maj. Gary Lyles, CAFTT intelligence and surveillance program manager. "They have the gameplan, and now they are starting to run with the ball."At IAF Squadron 23 located at New Al Muthana Air Base in Baghdad, Iraqiairmen fly C-130E aircraft missions to deliver troops and cargo insupport of the Iraqi government. As the largest and most seasoned IAFsquadron, Squadron 23 has about 45 aircrew, 120 maintenance and 130support personnel assigned. "The C-130 program is the most advanced," said General Hoog. "It's beenin place for two-and-a-half years, and we've been training Iraqi pilotsside-by-side with our Air Force advisers. They fly each and every day doing cargo missions, and they are already flying troops in from Basraand Irbil.".... Thu, 29 Mar 2007 19:01:00 EDT