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(J.D. is answering your questions! If you have a question, send us an e-mail.)
"I bought your DVD and was impressed by the sincerity and integrity of the young Marines portrayed. I'm looking forward to the next one. I'm particularly keen on seeing Fallujah 2007 as compared to 2005. I'm curious as to what your first impression was regarding changes in Al Anbar since your last visit. Thanks and stay safe." Jim
Jim, my very first impression was on March 26th 2007 when Al Qaida staged a complex on OP Omar just north of Kharmah.
As an owner of the DVD, you know what happened the last time I was in Kharma in 2005.
I started off this trip in Kharma intentionally as it would allow me to adjust to Iraq in an area I already knew well.
I had been briefed ahead of time that the situation in Kharma had waxed and waned since autumn of 2005.
In the early afternoon of March 26th I was standing on the porch at OP Omar shooting the breeze with a group of paratroopers from Blackfoot Company 1-501st when a suicide truck bomb exploded 150 meters away.
The truck bomb was followed immediately by RPGs and fire from AK-47s, PKMs and RPKs.
Attacks on the out posts in Kharmah were common in 2005. 1st Lieutentant Sean Gobin, in his mission briefing about Operation Clear Decision, discussed how one of the out posts was hit.
Now, I was in an out post in Kharmah as it was being hit.
My first impression was thus--nothing has changed, it has gotten worse.
If my entire Kharmah experience was limited to that one day, I would have sounded like Harry Reid.
But, unlike the gentleman from Nevada I know a lot about Iraq and even more about Kharmah.
I have always thought Kharmah would be one of the last places to brought under control--its geographical location, terrain and people make it an ideal place for Al Qaida and other insurgents to work in or from.
At that time, spring 2007, in Kharmah the insurgents operated in company sized elements. The paratroopers were regularly shooting it out and even engaging in some very effective counter-sniper operations.
But they were not pure kinetic. They were compiling census data. Compilation of census data was considered an exotic concept in 2005.
I also heard whispers of a militia group opposed to Al Qaida. In 2005 there were not even whispers of Iraqis standing up to Al Qaida in Kharmah.
In late May I went back to Kharmah and met the people being whispered about.
After a week plus operating with Blackfoot and Task Force Geronimo I could tell they were getting Kharmah under control and the complex attack was part of Al Qaida's renewed efforts at spectacular attacks--or as Colonel Bob Chase used to say, attempts at the spectacular.
That they could still pull off the infiltration needed to stage the attack showed the people in north Kharmah were still scared to death of the insurgents and unwilling to help the coalition.
The impression was progress since taking over the area from the Iraqi Army but little progress since 2005.
But what counts is the last impression of Kharmah. My last impression was when I heard from Lt. Col. Keaveny that some residents around OP Omar were wanting to work with the paratroopers in establishing check points leading to a key village and infiltration route.
North Kharmah was starting to awaken.
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