Memories of Iraq

I was reading this post of Michael Yon's, http://www.michaelyon-online.com/resurrection.htm, and thinking of the 30mm cannon which the A-10s fire. I remember a day when I was sitting in Al Faw palace, near Baghdad International Airport, on the second or third deck with an officer who was a groomsman and sword bearer at my wedding. As Drew and I caught up - I was on my way home soon and he was newly in theater - the offensive that GEN Odierno had conceived was kicking in - essentially right out of the gate of our base. The 25mm chain guns from the Bradley fighting vehicles and the Strikers was infreakinpressive. When those things got to work, it was hard to imagine any Al Qaeda mofro who wasn't scared or dead. Whan an awesome thing that must have been to hear if you were toting a rifle in the streets - knowing that the other guys, the bad guys, were on the receiving end of that murderous rain of pain.

I don't know how far away they were - from our vantage point, cigar in hand, feeling really strange to be there but to be so insulated from all the hell the troopers of the US Army were going through each day - but we could see the blasts, intense white flashes, several seconds before we could hear them.

The General's strategy worked - defend the vast majority of Iraqis who were not a threat, fight the insurgents in their stronghold neighborhoods and then occupy them when the AQ were gone. Pursue AQ as they fled; no mercy, no rest, no let up. It was something he could not have done without the surge. It was something he could not have done without GEN Patreus' support from President Bush. It was something he could not have done without the benefit of having found an AQ computer in the rubble of the building that Al Zarqawi was killed in. It worked. AQ was broken, the Iraqi citizenry was protected, and they began to view their govt as legitimate. By having US troops in the Iraqi neighborhoods, the Iraqis associated their safety to the US troopers who were no longer returning the safety of the FOBs each night.

It changed the war, changed two nations. I was just there taking notes, but how grateful I am to have been an infinitesimal part of it.