{"id":339,"date":"2007-01-17T07:52:57","date_gmt":"2007-01-17T13:52:57","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php\/2007\/01\/17\/michelle-malkin-back-from-baghdad\/"},"modified":"2007-01-17T10:25:58","modified_gmt":"2007-01-17T16:25:58","slug":"michelle-malkin-back-from-baghdad","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/?p=339","title":{"rendered":"Michelle Malkin: Back from Baghdad"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Michelle Malkin is\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/michellemalkin.com\/archives\/006708.htm\"> back from Baghdad<\/a>:<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>I came to Iraq a darkening pessimist about the war, due in large part to my doubts about the compatability of Islam and Western-style democracy, but also as a result of the steady, sensational diet of \u201cgrim milestone\u201d and \u201cdaily IED count\u201d media coverage that aids the insurgency.I left Iraq with unexpected hope and resolve.<\/p>\n<p>The everyday bravery and consummate professionalism of the troops I embedded with has strengthened my faith in the U.S. military. These soldiers are well aware of the history, culture, and sectarian strife that has wracked the Muslim world for more than a millennium. \u201cThey love death,\u201d one gunner muttered as we heard explosions in the distance while parked in al Adil. Nevertheless, these troops are willing to put their lives on the line to bring security to Iraq, one neighborhood at a time.<\/p>\n<p>They have teamed with Sunni and Shia, Iraqi civilian and soldier, alike to establish local government structures and security framework districts. \u201cWe are not here to build the Iraqi Security Forces,\u201d Lieutenant Colonel Steven Miska, deputy commander for the Dagger Brigade Combat Team, 1st Infantry Division, said. \u201cWe\u2019re here to grow them. You can\u2019t just plant and walk away.\u201d Capt. Aaron Kaufman of Task Force Justice added: \u201cIt\u2019s not a six-month or year-long process, especially when you\u2019re talking about training the Iraqi forces.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The troops I met scoff at peace activists\u2019 efforts to \u201cbring them home now.\u201d But they are just as critical of the Bush administration and Pentagon\u2019s missteps\u2014from holding Iraqi elections too early, to senselessly breaking up their brigade combat team, to drawing down forces and withdrawing last year in Baghdad and Fallujah, to failing to hold cities after clearing them of insurgents. They speak candidly and critically of Shiite militia infiltration of some Iraqi police and Iraqi Army units and corruption in government ministries, but they want you to know about the unseen good news, too.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>Read the whole thing.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Michelle Malkin is\u00a0 back from Baghdad: I came to Iraq a darkening pessimist about the war, due in large part to my doubts about the compatability of Islam and Western-style democracy, but also as a result of the steady, sensational diet of \u201cgrim milestone\u201d and \u201cdaily IED count\u201d media coverage that aids the insurgency.I left [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-339","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-war-on-terror"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/339","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=339"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/339\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=339"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=339"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=339"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}