Michael Yon: Ghosts of Anbar, Part IV of IV - What Defines Need Not Divide

michaelyon-online.com ^ | Sep 7, 2007 | Michael Yon

[neverdem]

After villagers tipped off the IP about an IED emplacer some days earlier, the Iraqi Army and US Marines launched several raids based on further tips. On the way to the raids, Lieutenant Hamid took a sidebar and raided the wrong house. SSG Rakene Lee asked LT Hamid why he had raided the wrong house. It appeared to be an accident, but nobody was hurt and the people were treated well. (Except of course that their house got raided.)

Fortunately, everyone had gone in easy and not blown doors off with explosives. Those mistakes also happen sometimes. Sometimes our own guys blow down doors to the wrong homes. Back in the early days of the war, this might have seemed like an innocent “Oh well that’s war” type mistake, but after spending all this time with Iraqis I now see that it was in part actions like that, which also blew open the door in Iraq for al Qaeda to come in.

Counterinsurgency is all about perception. Perception is how reality gets interpreted by people. It can be shaped, cajoled, hardened or distorted by innumerable influences. A paragraph in the Ethics section of the Army’s new COIN manual makes this clear:

[Lurker]

Michael Yon deserves a Pulitzer at least.

L

[Belasarius]

I eagerly look forward to his dispatches and support him financially with small donations ($25 here and there). I doubt he will get a Pulitzer because the kind of people who do Pulitzers don’t do Iraq. Every day he is out there is a slap in the face to the absentee American press.

His reporting will be long remembered and appreciated. I put him in the same class as Ernie Pyle and, unlike Ernie, hopefully Michael Yon will have a long life to enjoy the respect and admiration of Americans for providing us with the straight story from Iraq.

[karnage]

In a just world, some visionary filmmaker would make a movie about Michael Yon. Hey wait a minute... I’m a visionary filmmaker! I better get busy!

Oh... forgot about the “just world” part...

[eureka!]

marking

[neverdem]

After the Surge

Congress holds new hearing on immigration bill

Gay rights advance may be Pyrrhic victory

The Revolt of Arab-Iranians

Feds bust Democrat fund-raiser Norman Hsu in Colorado ( Now even NY knows - what will Hillary say?) P.S. NY Daily News doesn't mandate excerpting, AFAIK.

From time to time, I’ll ping on noteworthy articles about politics, foreign and military affairs. FReepmail me if you want on or off my list.

[Ultra Sonic 007]

I love Michael Yon’s work.

He could give Ron Paul a few pointers.

[Tolik]

Very good. I was impressed btw with the language of the COIN Field Manual: its plain and right to the point. Reading manuals is sometimes a form of torture - this one is brilliant.

[freema]

Excellent points contained herein.

Worlds away from the Haditha and Hamdania Marines, November 2005, however.

[Marine_Uncle]

Before the artificial term "surge" came to be, it was apparent to me, that the tide would change. It did a year back or so.
All the activities in al Anbar, Nineveh provinces as well as Babil, where indications it was a matter of time for the Coalition forces (with the ever increasing willingness and effeciencies in the Iraqi military) to gain the upper hand over the various elements of the insurgency.
Some of us have been touting the same verbage for going on two years or more about how we would eventually win this SASO.
It is a matter of time. And now the willingness of a large number of Iraqi of different faiths and ethnic/tribal/political backgrounds, to work toward an end of the jihadist movements in Iraq, the ground was seeded for the surge to work.
It was a matter of time.

[jazusamo]

Another excellent piece by Michael Yon, he’s among the very best in Iraq. Thanks for the ping, Ma.

[freema]

Indeed, you all were the voices of reason and I looked for you every day thru that dark period.

[SunkenCiv]

Thanks nd.

[FreedomPoster]

Concur, and I’ve sent him a couple $20s as well. Probably time to do it again.

To anyone paying attention, the fact that a Yon is compelled to exist, is an extremely denigrating indictment of the American press.

[Travis McGee]

Michael Yon is the Ernie Pyle of this war.

I hope he has better luck getting home after.