Straight from an Iraqi's mouth...

While stationed here in Iraq, we had an amazing opportunity to transport the Iraqi Deputy Defense Minister in our C130. Our best guess is that this is basically equivalent to the Undersecretary of Defense in the states. Although we had to sensor ourselves a little, we did get to ask him some questions about his feelings on the war, current conditions, and future plans.

First of all, the Minister was extremely grateful that Saddam was taken out. He said he met Saddam on a few occasions, and described him as an "F$%*ing A$$ hole" (excuse the bad language.) He assured us that collectively, the Iraqis are very happy he is gone, and even though things are bad, they still prefer this over his rule. Freedom, obviously, has been difficult for them to figure out, but the Minister seemed extremely optimistic that the problems will be resolved in time.

Currently, he also talked about how much progress has been made, especially over the past year with the surge and with the continued improvement to Iraqi military and police forces. Apparently, part of his job is to report to the Prime Minister about the number of violent attacks, terrorist beheadings, kidnappings and other such incidences on a daily basis. A little over a year ago he said that a normal day consisted of around 150 such events. Now, they are around 1 to 3, and sometimes none at all. He also used to travel with extremely high security details of at least 10 body guards. Now, he said, he recently walked the streets of Bagdad with an American Colonel unescorted, something that would have been suicide only a few short months ago.

As for the future, he acknowledges the fact that there's a lot of room for improvement, and interestingly enough, he thoroughly disagrees with Obamas timetable and doesn't believe 18 months is even remotely possible considering how much equipment and personnel are in the country. Furthermore, the fear that some groups have (such as the northern Kurds) that civil war will break out is only amplified when Americans start talking about abandoning their country. The Iraqi's do want independence, but they also need us their to make the transition possible.

Another interesting point he made: most of the terrorist attacks happening are not from Iraqi's but rather from Iranians - and for an interesting reason. They aren't killing us (and by "us" I mean American soldiers and Iraqi citizens) for some ideological hatred (although I'm sure that's part of it), but rather because unrest in Iraq means that Americans attention will not turn towards Iran. According to him, the Iranians fear we will invade Iran next, so keeping Iraq unstable will make that impossible - or at least delay it.

The point of all of this, however, is because I fear that Obama and his Liberal pals will take credit for the sacrifices and efforts made by American soldiers and, most importantly, President Bush and the Republican party. These changes have not been made quickly, and certainly not within the last 6 weeks. To give ANY credit to Obama would be as ridiculous as to blame Bush for 9/11. Unfortunately, I believe Obama understands this, and it's no surprise that he's already extended his timetable for us to leave - he knows that the current plan IS working, and changing it would be a mistake. If he just continues with the same program, he'll steal the credit and Bush will only look like the man "who got us into this mess" instead of the man who pulled us through it.

Brock