For the past month and a half, I've been away from Anet, because I was TDY in Iraq for a unique mission to work with Iraqi forces. The opportunity to partake in this mission came down quickly, and I accepted it immediately. Weeks prior to leaving, I learned that I was not going to be able to deploy to Iraq with my sister unit, this fall, as I had intended. Instead I will be going to the new UH-60M model transition course, in a few months. While I have a good chance of going to Afghanistan with the 101st Air Assault Division, I don't know when I will get another chance to fight in Iraq... so I jumped at the chance for this special mission.

It was only a few months since I was last in Iraq... but I have to be honest... some of the progress I witnessed was incredible.

For some time, a lot of people in the military - including myself - have repeatedly said that we've always needed MORE troops in Iraq. The summer surge has the current level at ~160,000 troops, most of them focused in and around Baghdad... where I spent the last 45 days. When General Patreaus was the commander of the 101st, he oversaw combat operations in the city of Mosul. He was able to dramatically reduce violence by mixing troops amongst the local population, utilizing local troop stations and small unit tactics. Now that he's the commander of the overall theater of operations, he's applying a very similar technique to the country, as a whole.

When I left Iraq back in April, I was ready to throw in the towel. Progress was nonexistent. The insurgency was maximizing their efforts in zones where our troop levels were weakest, and what opinions did we have? We could either move troops away from other areas (thus creating a void of strength where they left and open the door to new attacks in the void) or simply ignore the violence. Either option was unacceptable, and hindering any advancement we made. When I left, it felt like every step we were making towards success, would be followed by 5 step backward!

But when I returned most recently, I flew over one particular neighborhood that was a hotbed for violence and danger, only months earlier. But I was amazed that this same neighborhood had done a 180degree about face -- it was relatively quite and safe enough for locals to move about without fear of getting caught in the violence. And each day, I saw a new example of the progress we are making. I also saw that our response to instances of violence and terrorism were a lot quicker and harder. What I saw, was that we're making harder and harder for the bad guys to operate. In many respects, it was a different ballgame than it was back in April.

I'll be honest... I didn't think it possible. I was pretty disheartened when I came home a few months ago. But I am still worried. We have ~160,000 troops in Iraq, but to sustain that number, is going to be VERY difficult. Of the 38 Army brigades, all of them are either deployed, returning from a deployment, or preparing to deploy. It's a strain on us, to say the least. But if we're proving one thing right now - the more troops we have in Iraq, the easier it becomes to maintain security and stability.

If we're able to do that, then we can focus on stabilizing the government. The biggest problem has always been security. Without it, it was impossible for the government to govern effectively. It seems like everyone wants significant progress on every front. Politically, socially, militarily, etc... But I've always considered security to be the chief concern, without it, progress in other areas would be retarded. And we're making progress on that front. If we can maintain the pressure, and make it more and more safe, then we can focus on politics and social issues.

Anyway, just a couple pictures to share

Lovely Iraq:
!

Progress on the streets:


-UH60