Many of you know that my best friend Fish is currently stationed in Iraq as part of the 3rd Infantry Division (my old unit, oddly enough). From time to time, I ask him via email about living conditions, mission successes and such. Here is an interesting reply he sent this week to my most recent barrage in inquiries... such as how much of an impact has the troop surge had, etc. I thought some of you might like to read his comments as I am sure he has a unique perspective on the situation compared to the press who feeds up dribble everyday - anyway, here it is:

I can't remember if I told you (again, I know I am a crappy pen pal) but I am no
longer at Victory, but have moved to Camp Delta; which is a "coalition" camp in
a different sector...Coalition means there was no significant US presence there,
so there is a mix mash of allied countries that are here to help us out...(makes
staff call a challenge)...and is much smaller scale and remote (No PX, no burger
king, barber, or AAFES support) than anything in Baghdad, but it is not that bad
here. In order to get snacks or whatever here you have to deal with a local
vendor "Habibi" who is a 50+ year old Iraqi guy from the area with about 40% of
his teeth...who has "squatted" in one of the abandoned buildings here on
post...however, if you go to his shop, you have to be prepared for the dreaded
"Habibi Man-Kiss"...

As for the Surge, I can tell you that militarily is spectacularly successful. We
are kicking jihadi ass seven ways to Sunday here. We are being successful in
pushing AQI and other baddies farther and farther from Baghdad, giving the
people and the government some breathing room. The thing we don't control is the
competency level of the government here...you just don't shake off 1000's of
years of systemic Arabic style government corruption and 30 years of Stalinist
Totalitarian corruption easily...will the Iraqis be able to get all of their
shit into one bag before the Dems force us to surrender? Who knows...

The longer I am here, the more I am convinced that this is not a civil war, but
a proxy war being fought by Iran, Syria, SA and others through the various
terror groups...Joe Iraqi is (or at least was) very grateful, and by and large
still are that we took out Saddam and have given them "freedom"...Joe Iraqi
however, believes that because we are American we can literally do
ANYTHING...(We call this the "If the US can put a man on the Moon Syndrome..."
If we can put a man on the moon, then the reason that he doesn't have a job or
security, or electricity in his house is not because the terrorists are killing
/ destroying things, it is because we don't care enough to stop it. (this is
Arab logic at its finest). The Iraqis are tired of getting blown up every day
when they leave their house, and the places where we have gained and maintained
a foothold, and established security has been transformed, which is "real"
purpose of the Surge...Push the bad guys out, and keep them out, so that the
Iraqi people can be safe, and the local government can re-establish control.
There are areas of Baghdad, and whole provinces of Iraq that are practically
tranquil and the former "nationalists--i.e. the sunni / former Sadam guys
fighting the "Occupation" have actually come over to our side--they are
realizing that we are not the ones doing the killing of their people. (took em
long enough). We would have Wal-mart, Starbucks, a most of Disney Land built
here by now had we done this 3 years ago! Now what to do about the A-holes in
the surrounding countries; that is the $64,000 question.

So yeah, there ya go.