This is what “reconstruction” looks like in southern Afghanistan.

“Nah,” he said. “That’s their deal. The Iraqi Police have their sources. We’re their liaisons, their trainers. We’re not in charge anymore. We’re just here to help them become police officers instead of paramilitaries.”
I kept hearing this sort of thing, and it always slightly surprised me. It may seem like Americans are in charge in Iraq, but that is really only true to an extent.
“We make sure they follow the rule of law,” Sergeant Guerrero continued, “that they don’t abuse prisoners. We’re trying to get them self-sustaining so we can pull out and go someplace where there’s some actual fighting.”
“At this point,” Sergeant Phillips said, “we’re just waiting for the Iraqi Police to work their magic.”
Weapons caches are usually found on land somebody owns. It wasn’t clear whether anyone owned the land we were standing on, but if so they didn’t seem to mind Americans and Iraqis digging holes all over the place. No one from the village next door came out to talk to anyone. No one even came out to watch. I found that curious, and it made me slightly uneasy. Often it means the locals know an explosion or ambush is imminent.
“Hey,” Sergeant Phillips said. “They brought in a front-loader.”
An Iraqi Police officer drove up in a bulldozer. Now we might be in business. I really hoped they would find something. There is so little “action” in and around Fallujah these days that this, I realized, might be as interesting as it gets anymore.

Another dispatch from Michael Totten.

I’ve done some design work for a group dedicated to the memory of Vietnam war dogs left behind after the US campaign there ended. It’s good to know this no longer happens – for the sake of both the dogs and their handlers;

Rose and Iron are one of about 200 canine teams deployed in Iraq, where the bond between soldiers and their dogs is so deep that some handlers have asked to be buried with their canine partners if they are killed together.
On frigid winter nights in the Iraqi desert, Rose shares his cot and sometimes his sleeping bag with Iron to keep him warm. In the scorching summer heat, he makes sure Iron has enough water before taking his own share. If the heat is too much for Iron, who has a thick coat of glossy black fur, Rose lets him rest, no matter what the platoon leader might want.
Whenever he goes on a mission, Rose tucks a copy of an ode to police and military dogs into his front pocket. It reads in part: “Trust in me, my friend, for I am your comrade. I will protect you with my last breath. When all others have left you and the loneliness of the night closes in, I will be at your side.”
[…]
Last July, Cpl. Kory D. Wiens, 20, and his Labrador retriever, Cooper, became the first soldier-dog team killed since Vietnam. They were buried side by side in Wiens’ hometown of Dallas, Ore.

Update – More on the soldier – canine bond here.

The longest drive.
More.

“I was on the beach in the Dominican Republic and I had a little break and I heard about that and —- can I say without everyone beating up on me across canada — I was on my third rum-and-coke and I really didn’t give a damn.” – General Rick Hillier

Bill Roggio emails;

Our plan for the 1st quarter of 2008 is to embed four reporters in theater. We currently have three embeds on deck. Gordon Alanko (aka Acute Politics), an Army Reservist and military blogger who just recently returned from a 15 month tour in Anbar province, will return to Iraq and head to Diyala and Arab Jabour in southern Baghdad Province. Phil Peterson, a photojournalist, will spend a month with US troops in eastern Afghanistan. I am planning to head out sometime in March. I haven’t decided if I should go to Afghanistan or Iraq, so I’m keeping my options open.

The Long War Journal is a nonprofit, 501(c)3 organization (tax deductible in the US). They’re looking for financial support for this project. I know you don’t subscribe to the Toronto Star, but consider phoning their circulation department to tell them you’re taking the money you aren’t wasting on their Liberal propaganda sheet and supporting real journalism instead.

Via Mark Collins;

Filmed in 2006 at CFB Cold Lake, Jetstream chronicles the experiences of seven students – one woman, six men – who reckon with rigorous and exhausting training in the 410 Tactical Fighter Squadron. Their day-to-day activities include intense flying missions in the military’s $35 million CF-18 Hornet, simulator flights and ground school. The workload is intense, the geometry is mind-numbing, and the day is never done.

The eight-part documentary begins 10 pm ET, Tuesday, Jan. 8.

This is a story

… about success and failure. It is a story about Iraq, and of something much bigger than Iraq. It is, perhaps, a small look into what makes victory, and defeat. It is a tale of infantrymen, of brave soldiers in dusty alleys a world away. It is a story of generals and strategies, too.
But to understand our newfound success there, to know a little of how we achieved it and most importantly, how to keep it, we need to move away from that Mesopotamian desert and those boots on the ground, and back to a different desert on the other side of the world a half century ago. For there, a vision was vouchsafed to a most unlikely warrior priest… the kind of insight that comes once or twice in all of human history.
There are some diverse threads to connect here. But if you have the patience to take a walk with me, you may perhaps see things in a way you have not seen them before.

(Grab a coffee.)

Says goodbye.

Michael Barone;

There are lessons to be learned from the dazzling success of the surge strategy in Iraq.
Lesson one is that just about no mission is impossible for the United States military. A year ago it was widely thought, not just by the new Democratic leaders in Congress but also in many parts of the Pentagon, that containing the violence in Iraq was impossible. Now we have seen it done.

Chart via AJ Strata (where there’s more)

Blackfive

Times;

After a five-day operation to take back the only remaining town in Afghanistan under the control of Taleban insurgents, the Afghan flag was flying today over Musa Qala. British and US troops began the operation on Friday, before Afghan forces moved in and took the market town in Helmand province. It has been one of the biggest operations carried out by the fledgling Afghan National Army so far.

[…]
Musa Qala was a crucial stronghold for the Taleban because of its importance in the opium and heroin trade. Helmand province reportedly supplies half of the world’s opium and around 90 per cent of the heroin on British streets.
Afghan soldiers searching the town after the operation came across several opium warehouses, including one containing up to £150 million worth of opium.
“This may be one of the biggest finds in Helmand so far,” said Lieutenant Dan Hopwood of the 2nd Battalion.
They also found back street bomb making factories, used to churn out roadside bombs for attacks on British soldiers.
Most of the town’s civilians had fled before the operation. Buildings were shuttered and the streets were deserted. But they are already starting to return. Mr Wafa said he and a delegation from the capital Kabul would travel to Musa Qala this Thursday to hand out 5,000 tonnes of aid, including wheat and blankets.
After the Taleban were pushed out of their Musa Qala stronghold, they turned their attention to the neighbouring Sangin district of Helmand province.
“The terrorists, after being defeated in Musa Qala, attempted to put pressure on Sangin district,” the Afghanistan defence ministry said in a statement today.
“During 48 hours of intense clashes around Sangin, over 50 terrorists have been killed.”

More here
h/t Maz2

More – Al Qaeda’s retreat from Iraq to Afghanistan.

Men of valour;

As temperatures approached 70° C (around 150º F) inside the armored vehicles, soldiers poured water down their body armor. A driver was naked other than his body armor and helmet,while soldiers in the back literally pulled down their pants. This was more than a mere attempt to keep cool. They were trying not to die. Thick clouds of dust baked the putrid Basra odors until they could gag a goat; although by then the soldiers inside the Bulldogs and Warriors could offer serious competition in a stink contest. With their heavy body armor and helmets, laden with ammunition, rashes erupted on their skin and their goggles and ballistic glasses were filthy. The place is like a toilet used as an oven. The people on the septic streets were flushed with hostility.
British soldiers, exhausted of sleep and food, drained from the heat, were deliberately moving forward toward an enemy rested with the home advantages of elevation, time, thousands of eyes and tons of weapons. The enemy could wait in ambush from the comfort of shade, while sleeping in bed, or even watching television.
They had been fighting all night, with no KIAs. Now the Welsh Warriors and 4 Rifles were escorting a resupply convoy of about two dozen vehicles straight through the center of Basra. After more than 13 hot, exhausting hours of near-constant fighting against an enemy that was rested, it was time to begin the killing.

Thanksgiving in Iraq;

“Do you know who you are talking to?” said the White Lion, getting out of his car. “I am Al Qaeda. I will destroy even your own houses!”
[…]
It was the beginning of the end for Al Qaeda in Amariyah. The next day, a firefight erupted. Al Qaeda fighters closed in on Abul Abed. Most of the 150 men who had joined him fled. Holed up in a mosque with fewer than a dozen supporters, Abul Abed thought the end was near.
“The blue carpet was soaked red with blood,” he recalled. Then the imam of the mosque called in American help.
A friendship was born.

Senator Joe Lieberman;

“It is thanks to the service and sacrifice of these American heroes that the extraordinary progress we have seen over the past months in Iraq has been possible — progress for which all Americans should be grateful.
Over the last several months, our troops have dramatically transformed the security situation in Iraq by rolling back Al Qaeda and Iranian supported extremists. As a result of their courageous efforts, violence is sharply down, and our enemies are off balance and on the run.
My trip reinforced my belief that we must support the mission in Iraq and ensure that our troops receive the resources from Congress they need and deserve. Our troops are bravely carrying out their mission – and we have an obligation not to let them down at this critical moment.”

Charles Krauthammer:

It does not have the drama of the Inchon landing or the sweep of the Union comeback in the summer of 1864. But the turnabout of American fortunes in Iraq over the past several months is of equal moment — a war seemingly lost, now winnable. The violence in Iraq has been dramatically reduced. Political allegiances have been radically reversed. The revival of ordinary life in many cities is palpable. Something important is happening.

Troops in Iraq celebrate the day.

“[The] combination of national leadership with no military expertise and a population that hasn’t been taught the cost of freedom leaves us with a government that does whatever seems expedient and a citizenry that believes whatever’s comfortable. Thus, myths about war thrive.”

Myth No. 1: War doesn’t change anything.

The last of the last.

A tradition of duty.
Meet the last five British survivors of World War One
Every man of fighting age in this Ojibwa reserve volunteered for World War II.
Children of the Great War (UK)
Add yours in the comments.

Both Charles Adler, and now a reader have recommended The Battle of Medak Pocket on History channel tonight.

… tells the compelling story of a stand off in September 1993 between the heavily armed Croat troops and the men of the Second Battalion of the Princess Patricia’s Canadian Light Infantry.
Their bravery and determination saved the mission, forcing the Serbs to lay down their arms, pushing the Croats out of the area, and earning the men of the Princess Patricia’s 2nd Battalion a rare UN unit citation.
The events at Medak Pocket helped crystallize an ongoing debate in the world community over the effectiveness of the original UN tradition of “peace keeping” and the need to replace it with a more effective but dangerous doctrine of “peace making.”

A topic near and dear to hearts here.
(I plan to watch if my headache will let up a little. I’ve been sick most of the day, so don’t expect anything new until morning.)

The three-man Reaper team, known as the best in the unit, was led by Sergeant Josh Morley, a 22-year-old paratrooper from North Carolina. Morley was regarded within Charlie Company as a consummate professional, and the men in the unit knew, beyond a shadow of a doubt, that they could always count on him and his team to come through whenever they were needed. Morley was affected even more than most of his fellow soldiers by the additional three months that had been added on to his unit’s combat tour, for he was a new father and was counting the days until the end of the deployment, when he would finally get to see his infant daughter for the first time — something he had already been waiting months to do.
The rest of Morley’s team was made up of Specialist Tracy Willis, a 21-year-old from Texas, and Specialist Chris Corriveau, a 23-year-old from Maine. Willis was well known within Charlie Company as a friendly, laid back, permanently smiling young man who was always good for a laugh and for conversation, regardless of the person and the situation. Corriveau was quieter, but had earned the immense respect of his peers at Patrol Base Olson not only for his talent as a sniper but also for his abilities as a natural leader. The team had been together in Iraq for well over a year, and the three young men were as close as soldiers could be. They knew everything about each other, from their backgrounds, to information about their families, to the punchlines of Willis’s tiredest jokes. Further, they had worked together so closely, and for so long, that they could read each other’s body language and tone of voice, and were able to function as an extraordinarily effective unit.
For this mission, the three-man Reaper Two sniper team was rounded out by a fourth man (and a second Texan), 23-year-old Specialist Eric Moser. The company armorer, Moser was not a member of the Battalion Scout Platoon like Morley, Willis, and Corriveau, but was a competition-caliber shooter, and had gone along on several OPs with Reaper in the past, serving as a “designated marksman.” His skill with firearms would end up being critical that day.

This one comes highly recommended by Bill Ardolino