More great stuff from Michael Yon, this time in a Wall Street Journal OpEd:
It is said that generals always fight the last war. But when David Petraeus came to town it was senators – on both sides of the aisle – who battled over the Iraq war of 2004-2006. That war has little in common with the war we are fighting today.
I may well have spent more time embedded with combat units in Iraq than any other journalist alive. I have seen this war – and our part in it – at its brutal worst. And I say the transformation over the last 14 months is little short of miraculous.
The change goes far beyond the statistical decline in casualties or incidents of violence.
A young Iraqi translator, wounded in battle and fearing death, asked an American commander to bury his heart in America. Iraqi special forces units took to the streets to track down terrorists who killed American soldiers. The U.S. military is the most respected institution in Iraq, and many Iraqi boys dream of becoming American soldiers.Yes, young Iraqi boys know about “GoArmy.com.”
……Iraqis came to respect American soldiers as warriors who would protect them from terror gangs. But Iraqis also discovered that these great warriors are even happier helping rebuild a clinic, school or a neighborhood. They learned that the American soldier is not only the most dangerous enemy in the world, but one of the best friends a neighborhood can have.
Link: http://online.wsj.com/article/SB120787343563306609.html?mod=opinion_main_commentaries
Michael Yon is a former Soldier-turned journalist who publishes outstanding dispatches from Iraq and Afghanistan. He and another former Soldier, Bill Roggio, (http://www.longwarjournal.org/) provide information about the success and overwhelming victory achieved by U.S. forces that you will never see in the MSM.