For my 500th Article (my gosh have I really done that many??!?!) I wanted to start out with my YouTube Channel, 3rdID8487, which has had over 130,000 video views since March 15th , 2007! A little over 1000 views a day! In addition I have been able to connect 20+ military families with videos or photos of their loved ones in Iraq or Afghanistan. What a treat that has been, the e-mails I have gotten have been priceless and made all the time and effort spent searching, downloading, copying and uploading, very much worth every minute. I have posted over 330 videos so far and add more almost daily.
I also wanted to follow up on an article that I posted last week. I posted an article on an Iraqi Man that literally gave his life to protect his fellow Iraqi's and some US Soldiers. If you forgot or have not read it an Iraq man at a "Concerned Citizen Group meeting" saw a suicide bomber approaching the group and physically pushed him away from the group and the suicide bomber detonated his bomb and killed himself and the heroic citizen. It is not disputed that his actions saved countless lives of his fellow citizens at the meeting and that of several US Soldiers at the meeting. Staff Sgt. Sean Kane, of the US Army said, "He was high-spirited and really believed what the group (Concerned Citizens) was doing," Kane said. "I have no doubt the bomber was trying to kill American Soldiers. It was very calculated the way the bomber tried to do it. If he hadn’t intercepted him, there is no telling how bad it could have been." Kane believes the citizen is a hero.
"He could have run behind us or away from us, but he made the decision to sacrifice himself to protect everyone. Having talked with his father, I was told that even if he would have known the outcome before hand, he wouldn’t have acted differently." Sgt. Kane said.
This type of action by Iraqi’s is not new, but is greatly increasing in scope and size. I ran across the following article today while researching something and thought what a great bit of information it gives.
Concerned citizens root out terrorists
ISKANDARIYAH, Iraq – The citizens of Iraq are fighting back against terrorists in one Sunni dominated area south of Baghdad.
Paratroopers from the 25th Infantry Division are now fighting the enemy with information from hundreds of citizens who have pledged responsibility for the security of their neighborhoods.
The Concerned Citizens Program is similar to an all-volunteer Neighborhood Watch. During a recent operation to in Jurf as Sakhr, concerned citizens led Iraqi Soldiers and U.S. Paratroopers to a stronghold where five al-Qaeda members were killed after Paratroopers called in precision air strikes from helicopter gunships and U.S. Air Force fighter jets to destroy the building.
This has been the first attempted attack by al-Qaeda and other extremists since the Concerned Citizens Program began almost two months ago.
“This is a resounding victory for the concerned citizens and for the Coalition Forces. The few remaining extremists have nowhere to hide because the population will no longer harbor them” said Capt. Henry Moltz, commander, Company A. “There are 160 Paratroopers in Company A, but with the Concerned Citizens there are now thousands of eyes and ears working toward the same security goals.”
There are now more than 500 registered members of the Concerned Citizens Program who have volunteered to protect their villages and roads while they await training for the Iraqi Army and Iraqi Police forces.
At least 300 concerned citizens have already been accepted into the Iraqi Army. Moltz estimates another 300 people will register for the Concerned Citizens Program in the next few weeks, and that the Iraqi Police will begin to accept the concerned citizens into their ranks within the next month.
Jurf as Sahkr has long been one of the most hostile and dangerous areas of Iraq.
“In the past three weeks these brave volunteers have helped clear their villages of terrorists who are no longer welcome here” Moltz said. “Together with the local population, almost all of Jurf as Sahkr has been reclaimed from al-Qaeda and other extremist fighters. The streets are finally quiet.”
From: http://www.mnf-iraq.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=13663&Itemid=128
That is outstanding news and if it is a trend (which remains to be seen over a time frame) then it is very good news.
Getting the people of Iraq to take responsibility for their own neighborhoods and protection has been the goal all along and can only improve things if they begin to do that.
Attacks, violence and bombings are down (see here)and in some neighborhoods, violence has dropped to almost nothing (Link). While spectacular attacks catch the news headlines and news channels attention, what they fail to report to you is that overall, things continue to improve, both in the halting of violence, capture and elimination of terrorist, and in the quality of life of the average Iraqi.
While things still have a long way to go, things have improved, the people of Iraq have begun to step up and help themselves, and the US Military continues to show why they are the best in the world. Problem is, will the Iraqi people be given enough of a chance to get their act together before the support they need to get up and running is yanked out from underneath them? That is the question many are waiting to see how it is answered. I only hope we make the right one.