I got to talking to the neighbor last night.  He's a young guy, just fresh back from Iraq.  His dogs and my dog play with each other and so we stood visiting.  He has the new CAB, Combat Action Badge.  Since only 11-series MOS can receive the CIB, Combat Infantry Badge, the army has designed this one.  Carter has earned it, but I don't know if he got it yet.

Anyway, I had not seen the award before, only heard about it.  Here is a picture of it from http://www.army.mil/

You'll see a lot of other pictures there, too.  Soldiers interacting with Iraqi citizens everyday, for example.  You can learn a lot about the military by reading their websites.  You can also learn a lot from talking to people who have been there, done that, got the CAB.  My neighbor was shot in the vest twice while he was over there.  (These must be the vests the liberals are still saying the guys don't have.)  Told him about Carter's near miss, he's been there, too.  Told him about some of the liberal blogs I've been reading, he said the same thing that Carter said, people don't have a clue about what's going on over there.  (Someone else also pointed out that there was zero on any of the leftist "human rights" websites about the torture of American Soldiers.  Guess Amnesty Int'l doesn't count US Soldiers as human.  Surprise, surprise) They only know what they see in 5 second sound-bites on TV and what they read in the left-leaning press, if they bother to pick up a newspaper at all and many of them would never even consider reading an Army newspaper or other source of information.

The neighbor's been there, my buddy for 30 years (it's a shame about his looks, he's really a nice guy), Carter, has been there, the guys I run into everyday at the 7-11 have all been there.

The problem is not the Iraqis.  The Iraqis like the soldiers and like us being there.  We have built new schools and hospitals and roads.  We have given their school children new textbooks and other books and toys.  We have rebuilt many, many people's houses.  The Iraqis like us and they like freedom.  They like being able to speak their mind and not have to worry about their sister or wife or mother being "punished" for it or them being hacked into bits and laid on their front steps.  Most of the Iraqis like us.

The problem is that we have brought freedom and democracy to an area of the world that nobody ever thought it was possible.  My neighbor said that most of the people he's been fighting are not Iraqis, but Syrians, Lebanese, Turkey, places that have something to lose if Democracy and Freedom become a way of life.  They want us to fail and are thrilled by the way our own press treats the issue.  The guy next door said that they had to be so careful of what they said around their "embed" because they were constantly looking for something bad, something negative, to send back.

Remember, folks, what drives the media is not a search for truth, but advertising dollars.  What will sell more papers?  What will sell more TV ads?  Advertising is, of course based in Mad Ave, which is in bed with Hollyweird and all the stars that get up and blather on about things they know less than nothing about.

If you want to help in some way, there are several places to go, here are a few:

Soldier's Angels

Army Emergency Relief

Navy-Marine Corps Relief Society

USO

VFW

Operation Give (this is also a good one for giving toys to Iraqi children)

If you are interested, the VFW also has a news page.  I read this quote from Jim Mueller, National Commander of the VFW:

"From the commanding officers on down to the privates and airmen, our troops know that their mission is important. They are enthusiastic. Their morale is high, and they know they are helping to make a difference to an entire nation--and the Iraqi people know this, too. Everywhere I went, the message that the Iraqis wanted me to take back was for America to be patient, that 'We want to get this democracy right the first time."

Want firsthand information from the people who really know?  Try reading the Department of Defense website and its veritable plethora of links to every branch of service.  http://www.defenselink.mil/sites/

http://www.defenselink.mil/ & http://www.defenselink.mil/news/articles.html

You might say that they would be biased, but if you think a little further you should realize that the mainstream media has access to all this same information and if there was something wrong with it, they wouldn't hesitate to tell you about that.

Another source of information might be military blogs and blogs of family members.  If you read The Patriette's blog http://www.thepatriette.com/ you will see an area called "Milblogs."  Try a few of those, too.

Remember, The Good Book says, "A gossip goes around spreading rumors, while a trustworthy man tries to quiet them."

Currently listening to:
America, Why I Love Her
By John Wayne