"Where are you going to be?" the Iraqi Police Lieutenant asked the Army Corporal.

"Here, we're staying here."

The Lieutenant looked at the Corporal, the Corporal looked back at the Lieutenant.

This would be the first time Iraqi police officers from the Civil Camp police station walked the beat at night without Soldiers and Marines at their side.

After my appearance last Friday on Hannity and Colmes, I've been thinking about the tape that JD has shot, and one interview he did keeps coming to mind.

So I went back into the archives, and found some tape from JD's first trip to Iraq.  I'm going to play audio of portions of the interview JD had with then Colonel Gurganus.

At the Chow.  It is a nice one here.  Occasionally referred to as the 'Golden Corral.'

On the TV two human talking-points-generators are debating about a war they know nothing about in a country they have only seen on a map or on TV.

I don't know why they are called 'strategists'--neither one of them could design a decent ambush.

Remember This Story?

Ah yes, just 7 months ago Al Anbar was "lost."

The Iraqi people are famous for the hospitality, sense of humor and inability to shoot straight.  But the shooting jokes may be coming to an end soon. 

The Marines of the Multi-National Forces West Training Center have taken on what would seem to be an awesome task--teaching Iraqi soldiers and police officers advanced marksmanship and combat marksmanship.  But the task is not as insurmountable as one would think.

"Redeploying our troops who are bogged down in the middle of an Iraqi civil war will enable us to refocus on our top national security: the global fight against Al Qaeda and its affiliates," said Senator Russell D. Feingold, Democrat of Wisconsin. (April 27, 2007)

But.....

48 hours without sleep.

24 hours without food.

6 hours with little water.

It was the most successful mission I had ever been on.  Insurgencies are not beat with hammer and anvil clearing operations.  They are not beat with presence patrols conducted from the confines of humvees that resemble bank vaults or Bradly fighting vehicles or Strykers.

Insurgencies are beat with a piece of paper:  A Census Form.

I had just finished shooting a range with a group of Iraqi Sergeants when their Commanding Officer, Lt. Ala took hold of my right hand and pulled me close to him.

He had something important to tell me.

Just back inside some civilized wire (Camp Fallujah) and am reading Harry Reid's declaration then track back on the war in Iraq being lost.

The odd thing--is that I think there are parts of Al Anbar province where the war may be over and we just don't realize it.

The following post explains.

Tribal Mojo

Driving along the four-lane highway from Habbaniyah to Ramadi there are the usual coalition check points, Iraqi Army Outposts, markets, black market gas stations and Police Stations.

But, off the main highway, on the access roads leading back into the Euphrates canal country, every half mile, gun men wearing Keyfahs and wielding AK-47s man road blocks--and they are the best allies we can have against the jihadists.