Weblog Commenting and Trackback by HaloScan.com The Barnyard: Back In Iraq

Thursday, January 10, 2008

Back In Iraq

Mike Yon is back in Iraq after a brief trip home and as I suspected he would, he has written a book about is adventures embedded with troops at war, "Moment of Truth in Iraq". You can preorder a signed copy at his site and through an agreement with the publisher it will help get him funds quicker or hit his tip jar if you are able. Mike has been the most reliable reporter from the ground from the beginning and here is a key graph from his latest post.

There’s only a small group of writers who honestly spend enough time in Iraq to make serious claims based on firsthand accounts. But I’ve seen the Iraqi Army with my own eyes. I’ve done many missions in 2005 and 2007, in many places in Iraq, along with the Iraqi Army: please believe me when I say that, on the whole, the Iraqi Army is remarkably better in 2007 and far more effective than it was in 2005. By 2007, the Iraqis were doing most of the fighting. And . . . this is very important . . . they see our Army and Marines as serious allies, and in many cases as friends. Please let the potential implications of that sink in.

We now have a large number of American and British officers who can pick up a phone from Washington or London and call an Iraqi officer that he knows well—an Iraqi he has fought along side of—and talk. Same with untold numbers of Sheiks and government officials, most of whom do not deserve the caricatural disdain they get most often from pundits who have never set foot in Iraq. British and American forces have a personal relationship with Iraqi leaders of many stripes. The long-term intangible implications of the betrayal of that trust through the precipitous withdrawal of our troops could be enormous, because they would be the certain first casualties of renewed violence, and selling out the Iraqis who are making an honest-go would make the Bay of Pigs sell-out seem inconsequential. The United States and Great Britain would hang their heads in shame for a century.

2 comments:

Gayle said...

Michael Yon is indeed amazing. I go to his website often. I haven't been there lately though, as I'm playing catch up after having been away for so long, so thanks for the tip regarding the book. I'll read it if I ever get through "The Rising Sun" subtitled: "The Decline and Fall of the Japenese Empire." If you haven't read it, it's worth the read. There's lots of information I never saw through any other source. It was written by John Toland, copywrite 1970.

Goat said...

Gayle, I have heard lots of good things about "Rising Sun". I am finishing Robert Kagen's "Imperial Grunts". I would also suggest Lawrence Wright's "The Looming Tower" if you haven't read it already.I posted a review in around Dec20 if you want to archive dig.