More Iraqi Heroism...

From Major K: Heroism The other day, I was sitting in the conference room of our headquarters building during a meeting with the Executive Officer and the rest of the staff. When we heard a loud explosion that was strong enough and/or close enough to rattle our building. We all paused and looked at each other and remarked that “that one was pretty close.” We waited a moment to hear if there were going to be any more explosions or gunfire as this would indicate that an attack was underway as opposed to merely a large detonation of captured explosives by our EOD (Explosive Ordnance Disposal) team nearby or an IED just outside the FOB. If there were any additional noises like that, we would have to gear up and get ready to fight. As it was, there were no additional explosions or gunfire and we continued our meeting. This is what had happened: A short distance from our FOB, A US convoy was driving down the road. As they headed to their destination a civilian vehicle pulled on from a side alley and attempted to get into the convoy. Apparently, the convoy gunners were too green or some how did not perceive the car to be a threat. They did not wave the car off, throw anything at him, cut him off, or shoot to try and stop him. A nearby IP (Iraqi Police) SUV witnessed the intruding vehicle and immediately intervened. It pulled up to the rear of the convoy and tried to force the intruding vehicle off the road. The IP’s had successfully put themselves between the vehicle and the US convoy. Unable to deter the vehicle from approaching the US convoy or make it pull over, the IP’s fired at the engine of the encroaching vehicle. At this point, the driver detonated the IED inside his vehicle. Yes, this was a classic VBIED. This suicide bomber killed himself and the four IP’s in the vehicle holding him at bay. The device was so powerful that the bomber’s vehicle was literally obliterated. The engine block was thrown over 25 meters. The IP’s vehicle was nothing but a burned out shell. All four IP’s inside perished in the blast, but not a scratch was inflicted on the vehicles or personnel of the US convoy. Had it not been for the exceptional bravery, valor and situational awareness of these four Iraqi Patriots, that day would have been bloodier, and we probably would have had another communications blackout at the FOB. Pundits and soldiers alike have talked a lot of trash about the ISF (Iraqi Security Forces). But if they are even half as good as these four were, the future of Iraq is very bright indeed. I hope they are decorated with the highest honors their country can bestow upon their fallen. Their actions were as heroic as it gets if you ask me.

Assad is going down fast now..

Michael Young seems to think that it is indeed so for Syria: The End Now the Saudis have asked the Syrians to leave Lebanon, and soon. It's the end, whatever Bashar Assad does. All the props sustaining Syrian power in Lebanon have crumbled, except the resort to brute force; and even there you can kill Rafik Hariri and say it wasn't you. You can say that the bungled assassination attempt against Marwan Hamadeh, a Hariri ally, last October wasn't you either. You can even say that you had nothing to do with the deployment of armed thugs in Beirut belonging to an Islamist group created by the Syrian regime to fight the Muslim Brotherhood (a deployment for the purpose of preventing a meeting between U.S. envoy David Satterfield and Lebanon's Sunni mufti). But can you really say that about any possible new victims? It's over. From Damascus there is news of gloom and uncertainty, desperation and anticipation of the worst, even talk of a coup, though no one quite seems to know who would organize it. Michel Kilo, a prominent Syrian opposition figure, has also severely criticized, or rather mocked, the Syrian attempt at trying to salvage something under the "Arab umbrella," judging it as another short-sighted miscalculation. Instead of asking for an Arab way, of two Arab states that are helpless against the US and are under pressure from the US to cooperate, and who surely won't put their necks out for a bumbling Syrian regime, why not ask for a Lebanese way? He reminds the Syrian regime that the opposition has in fact offered it an honorable way out, but the Syrians have reciprocated with nothing but contempt and short-sightedness, as the Arab way won't make the international pressure go away! "It will postpone it till April," wrote Kilo, but then what?! Kilo doesn't say it, but this contempt is characteristic of Bashar, as Michael noted in his WSJ piece (see below), as evident from the disgraceful La Repubblica interview. Josh Landis commented today that the Syrians still won't accept normal diplomatic relations with Lebanon, which would be exemplified by respective embassies in Beirut and Damascus. Jumblat recently made a similar remark, that this regime is not interested really in having normal relations with Lebanon. Nevertheless, being a realist, he still reached out to it to have an honorable exit and establish decent relations, not based on hegemony, intimidation, and interference. But as they say in Lebanon, "there's no one there, don't holler." In fact, as Kilo himself said: "they see that if they fix themselves, they will die." As for those news from Damascus, it's perhaps best exemplified by this sad post by Ammar Abdulhamid, which echoes Kilo's frustration: The City’s air is rife with all sorts of untoward rumors, everything is now possible: there is talk of arrests, purges, coup d’états, assassinations, sanctions, invasions, anything and everything, except, of course, freedom. Everything is possible except freedom. Freedom is never mentioned. Freedom never comes to mind. Freedom remains a distant dream. The world is changing around us, but we, Damascenes, Syrians, Sunnis, ‘Alawis, Muslims, Christians, Arabs, Kurds, Circassians, or however we define ourselves these days, including perhaps heretics, can’t feel any hope in that. Nothing has touched us so far. Nothing seems to loom in the air, except for rumors and hearsays, none of which particularly inspired or inspiring. The face of an ugly and malevolent god still stares down upon any possibility of hope within us. A reported wave of arrests has already swept a variety of "low-key" dissidents, that is, those whose arrest is not likely to generate much notice abroad, or even here, no matter how terrible this may sound. But then, everything sounds terrible these days. Despairingly terrible. There is hope all around us, but somehow there always needs to be some pit of despair somewhere meant to serve as a continuous reminder of how things were or could again be. But those whose fate is to live in such a pit have themselves to blame as well. If history teaches anything it’s that such punishment is always earned somehow. We earned it with our long and studious silence.

Time to take down Assad...

March 3, 2005: Syrian President Bashar Assad is afraid he will end up like Saddam Hussein. Both of these men have led their national Baath Parties. Saddam lost control, and Assad is losing it. Assad's father was Saddam's contemporary. The elder Assad's untimely death put Bashar in command, but not in control, of Syria. His dad's cronies control most of the bureaucracy, armed forces and security organizations. There is no agreement among all these chiefs about what to do to stay in power. Thus we have the bizarre contrast of Syrian police turning over Saddam's half-brother and 30 of his henchmen, while Syrian agents facilitate the assassination of a prominent anti-Syrian Lebanese politician, and a suicide bombing inside Israel. All within two weeks. No senior Syrians will admit that no one is completely in control in Syria. It is feared that there may be a coup, as some of the senior generals and security officials push Bashar Assad aside and take over. Bashar is seen by his father's old timers as too inexperienced. But the problem is that Syria is simply in a very bad situation. Like Iraq, Syria adopted the Baath Party to run the country decades ago. Like Iraq, the socialist dictatorship of the Baath Party led to corruption and economic decline. This has made enemies of Syria's neighbors, and the Syrian people. The Syrian Baath Party has run out of credit, and credibility. The bill is now due, and no one wants to pay. March 2, 2005: The new Palestinian government is saying all the right things ("fight corruption, end terrorism, negotiate with Israel"), but only time will tell if they can deliver. The corruption in the Palestinian government has been around a long time, and is more the norm than the exception in the Middle East. Palestinian terrorist organizations, noting that most Palestinians are fed up with futile terrorist attacks, and the poverty it has brought them (because of Israel counter-terrorism measures), have agreed to go ahead with a cease fire. But these same terrorist outfits continue to preach their ultimate goal of the destruction of Israel. The Palestinian government may be negotiating a long term peace deal, but the Palestinian terrorists are only offering a short respite from the fighting. This is a way for the Palestinians to put off a major Israeli demand; that the Palestinian government outlaw terrorist organizations, and shut these outfits down. At the moment, that would cause civil war in the Palestinian territories. Foreign nations are offering the Palestinians billions of dollars in financial incentives (bribes?) to make peace. But it may not be enough. It's been over half a century, and the Palestinians have consistently found ways to not make a peace deal. March 1, 2005: In Lebanon, days of anti-Syrian demonstrations caused the pro-Syrian government to resign. The composition of the new government makes a lot of Lebanese nervous. The Syrians originally came to Lebanon to keep the peace after a civil war. The factions remain in Lebanon, and many Lebanese fear that the civil war could return. Moreover, the years of Syrian domination have left the country with a culture of corruption and cronyism that is bad even by Middle Eastern standards. Syrian influence, especially in business deals and organized crime, is everywhere. This influence won't disappear with a change of government. The Syrians are feeling the pressure, and say they will get their 14,000 troops out within a few months