[knighthawk]

Ping

[pgyanke]

Wow. Thank you for posting that.

[2banana]

I had met Captain Patriquin while embedded with US troops in Ramadi last November. He was a big man, moustachioed, ex-Special Forces, fluent in Arabic and engaged in what was then a revolutionary experiment for a US military renowned for busting doors down. He and a small group from the First Brigade Combat Team, part of the 1st Armoured Division, were assiduously courting the local sheikhs – tribal leaders – over endless cups of tea and cigarettes.

Captain Patriquin, 32, a father of three young children, was killed by a roadside bomb days after I left Ramadi last winter. Sheikh Sittar wept when told the news. He and several tribal leaders attended his memorial service. Captain Patriquin “was an extraordinary man who played a very, very important role,” he told The Times.

One man can change a war...

America should name something fitting after him too...

[knighthawk]

Watch Martin Fletcher’s report from Ramadi

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/audio_video/times_online_tv/?channel=Times%20Online%20News=0266

[theBuckwheat]

The Leftists and talking heads of the MSM find it useful to talk about moral equivalence, as if putting panties on the heads of captured enemies should be just as outrageous as sawing off the head of a captured reporter. And these confused people hate Bush so much they would rather lose in Iraq than face the serious nature of the chaos, misery and death that Islamists always bring as they implement their idea of a religious utopia:

>>
What al-Qaeda actually did was recruit local thugs, seize control of the city, and impose a Taleban-style rule of terror. Mayor Latif said that they regularly beheaded “collaborators” in public and left the heads beside the corpses...

Shortly before I arrived last November masked al-Qaeda fighters had brazenly marched through the city centre, pronouncing it the capital of a new Islamic caliphate....

“Al-Qaeda is gone. Everybody is happy,” said Mohammed Ramadan, 38, a stallholder in the souk who witnessed four executions. “It was fear, pure fear. Nobody wanted to help them but you had to do what they told you.”
<<

This is the ‘caliphate’ that Islamists want to bring to the entire world. Remember this, oh unbeliever, as you answer the Islam’s Three Demands: convert, submit or die.

[taxcontrol]

PRESENT ARMS,

Captain Patriquin, go to your rest sir - you deserve it
And thank you for your service and sacrifice.

[avacado]

That should be turned into a movie! Awesome!

Army Capt. Travis Patriquin

[NEMDF]

Thank you for sharing. Mailing it off to my son in Ramadi to make sure the young Marines he is with, understand the value of what they are doing.

Marine Mom
Semper Fi

[Blue State Insurgent]

Could someone please find that picture of Sheik Sattar at the memorial service now that I know the background of that story?

[SuziQ]

I had met Captain Patriquin while embedded with US troops in Ramadi last November. He was a big man, moustachioed, ex-Special Forces, fluent in Arabic and engaged in what was then a revolutionary experiment for a US military renowned for busting doors down. He and a small group from the First Brigade Combat Team, part of the 1st Armoured Division, were assiduously courting the local sheikhs – tribal leaders – over endless cups of tea and cigarettes.

This only points up the brilliance and versatility of the warriors in our Armed Forces. These are not neanderthals who only know how to destroy things. They are educated men who break things when necessary, but also know how to build them back up.