ART OF WAR: Postcard from Iraq : Cleveland IMC (((i)))

"I only wanted to go to college..." so he joined an organization that exists only to KILL OTHER HUMAN BEINGS!
The US armed forces are the forces of oppression and colonialism, each individual member is a willing tool of their masters who make decisions that kill millions.
The longer the US kill-bots are in Iraq and Afghanistan, the better.
As casualties mount, the cost of adventurism and oppression will become clear to the jingoistic Amerikkkan people.
If the mad-dog GIs weren't in Iraq and Afghanistan they would be somewhere else, perhaps here; killing innocents and freedom fighters. Keep 'em there, and with luck they will be taught something they didn't learn in basic training- that they are expendable pawns in a game of world domination.

sincerely- kb

Dear Mother and Father,
.
why am I here? In this hell! I only wanted to go to college, not here where we don't belong. Get me out please! It's hell! They hate us! And why shouldn't they? We invaded them, for Christ's sake! Whose country am I defending, anyway? Not the U.S..!
.

Love, Your Son
.

Ps. Get us out of here please!!!

Dear Mom and Dad,
.

You didn’t raise me to be a killer. This week, I killed an Iraqi. I can’t stop thinking about it.
Whose responsible?
Who lobbied for this war?
Just whose country am I fighting for, anyway?.

Love, Your Son

"I Was Wrong!"
By Rev. Ken Joseph, Jr.
Amman, Jordan

How do you admit you were wrong? What do you do when you realize those you were defending, in fact, did not want your defense and wanted something completely different from you and from the world?

This is my story. It will probably upset everybody - those with whom I have fought for peace all my life and those for whom the decision for war comes a bit too fast.

I am an Assyrian. I was born and raised in Japan where I am the second generation in ministry after my Father came to Japan in answer to General Douglas Macarthur's call for 10,000 young people to help rebuild Japan following the war.

As a minister and due to my personal convictions I have always been against war for any and all reasons. It was precisely this moral conviction that led me to do all I could to stop the current war in Iraq.

From participating in demonstrations against the war in Japan to strongly opposing it on my radio program, on television and in regular columns I did my best to stand against what I thought to be an unjust war against an innocent people - in fact my people.

As an Assyrian I was told the story of our people from a young age. How my grandparents had escaped the great Assyrian Holocaust in 1917 settling finally in Chicago.

Currently there are approximately six million Assyrians - approximately 2.5 million in Iraq and the rest scattered in the Assyrian Diaspora across the world.

Without a country and rights even in our native land it has been the prayer of generations that the Assyrian Nation will one day be restored and the people of the once great Assyrian Empire will once again be home.

HOME AT LAST

It was with that feeling, together with supplies for our Church and family that I went to Iraq to do all I could to help make a difference.

The feeling as I crossed the border was exhilarating - `home at last, I hought, as I would for the first time visit the land of my forefathers.

The kindness of the border guards when they learned I was Assyrian, the taxi, the people on the street it was like being back `home` after a long absence.

Now I finally know myself! The laid back, relaxed atmosphere, the kindness to strangers, the food, the smells, the language all seemed to trigger a long lost memory somewhere in my deepest DNA.

The first order of business was to attend Church. It was here where my morals were raked over the coals and I was first forced to examine them in the harsh light of reality.

Following a beautiful `Peace` to welcome the Peace Activists in which even the children participated, we moved to the next room to have a simple meal.

`What in the world do you mean?` I asked.

`How could you not want peace?` `We don't want peace. We want the war to come.`

Sitting next to me was an older man who carefully began to sound me out. Apparently feeling the freedom to talk in the midst of the mingling crowd he suddenly turned to me and said `There is something you should know.` `What` I asked surprised at the sudden comment.

`We didn't want to be here tonight`. he continued. `When the Priest asked us to gather for a Peace Service we said we didn't want to come`. He said.

`What do you mean` I inquired, confused.

**`We didn't want to come because we don't want peace` he replied.**

`What in the world do you mean?` I asked. `How could you not want peace?`

**`We don't want peace. We want the war to come` he continued.**

What in the world are you talking about? I blurted back.

That was the beginning of a strange odyssey that deeply shattered my convictions and moral base but at the same time gave me hope for my people and, in fact, hope for the world.

THE STRANGE ODYSSEY BEGINS

Beginning that night and continuing on in the private homes of relatives with whom I stayed little by little the scales began to come off my eyes.

I had not realized it but began to realize that all foreigners in Iraq are subject to 24 hour surveillance by government `minders` who arrange all interviews, visits and contact with ordinary Iraqis. Through some fluke either by my invitation as a religious person and or my family connection I was not subject to any government `minders` at any time throughout my stay in Iraq.

As far as I can tell I was the only person including the media, Human Shields and others in Iraq without a Government `minder` there to guard.

What emerged was something so awful that it is difficult even now to write about it. Discussing with the head of our tribe what I should do as I wanted to stay in Baghdad with our people during their time of trial I was told that I could most help the Assyrian cause by going out and telling the story to the outside world.

Simply put, those living in Iraq, the common, regular people are in a living nightmare. From the terror that would come across the faces of my family at a unknown visitor, telephone call, knock at the door I began to realize the horror they lived with every day.

Over and over I questioned them `Why could you want war? Why could any human being desire war?`

They're answer was quiet and measured. `Look at our lives!`We are living like animals. No food, no car, no telephone, no job and most of all **no hope**.`

I would marvel as my family went around their daily routine as normal as could be. Baghdad was completely serene without even a hint of war. Father would get up, have his breakfast and go off to work. The children to school, the old people - ten in the household to their daily chores.

**`You can not imagine what it is to live with war for 20, 30 years. We have to keep up our routine or we would lose our minds`**

Then I began to see around me those seemingly in every household who had lost their minds. It seemed in every household there was one or more people who in any other society would be in a Mental Hospital and the ever present picture of a family member killed in one of the many wars.

Having been born and raised in Japan where in spite of 50 years of democracy still retains vestiges of the 400 year old police state I quickly began to catch the subtle nuances of a full blown, modern police state.

I wept with family members as I shared their pain and with great difficulty and deep soul searching began little by little to understand **their desire for war to finally rid them of the nightmare they were living in.**

The terrible price paid in simple, down to earth ways - the family member with a son who just screams all the time, the family member who lost his wife who left unable to cope anymore, the family member going to a daily job with nothing to do, the family member with a son lost to the war, a husband lost to alcoholism the daily, difficult to perceive slow death of people for whom all hope is lost.

The pictures of Sadaam Hussein whom people hailed in the beginning with great hope everywhere. Sadaam Hussein with his hand outstretched. Sadaam Hussein firing his rifle. Sadaam Hussein in his Arab Headdress. Sadaam Hussein in his classic 30 year old picture - one or more of these four pictures seemed to be everywhere on walls, in the middle of the road, in homes, as statues - he was everywhere!

All seeing, all knowing, all encompassing.

`Life is hell. We have no hope. But everything will be ok once the war is over.` The bizarre desire for a war that would rid them of the hopelessness was at best hard to understand.

***`Look at it this way. No matter how bad it is we will not all die. We have hoped for some other way but nothing has worked. 12 years ago it went almost all the way but failed. We cannot wait anymore. We want the war and we want it now`***

Coming back to family members and telling them of progress in the talks at the United Nations on working some sort of compromise with Iraq I was welcomed not with joy but anger. **`No, there is no other way! We want the war! It is the only way he will get out of our lives`**

Once again going back to my Japanese roots I began to understand. The stories I had heard from older Japanese of how in a strange way they had welcomed the sight of the bombers in the skies over Japan.
I had been demonstrating against the war thinking I had been doing it for the very people I was here with now and yet I had not ever bothered to ask them what they wanted.

Of course nobody wanted to be bombed but the first sight of the American B29 Bombers signaled to them that the war was coming to an end. An end was in sight. There would be terrible destruction. They might very well die but finally in a tragic way there was finally hope.

Then I began to feel so terrible. Here I had been demonstrating against the war thinking I had been doing it for the very people I was here now with and yet I had not ever bothered to ask them what they wanted. What they wanted me to do.

It was clear now what I should do. I began to talk to the so called `human shields`. Have you asked the people here what they want? Have you talked to regular people, away from your `minder` and asked them what they want?

I was shocked at the response. **`We don't need to do that. We know what they want.` was the usual reply before a minder stepped up to check who I was.**

With tears streaming down my face in my bed in a tiny house in Baghdad crowded in with 10 other of my own flesh and blood, all exhausted after another day of not living but existing without hope, exhausted in daily struggle simply to not die I had to say to myself `I was wrong`.

********How dare I claim to speak for those for whom I had never asked what they wanted! ****

ALL I COULD DO

Then I began a strange journey to do all I could while I could still remain to as asked by our tribe let the world know of the true situation in Iraq.

Carefully and with great risk, not just for me but most of all for those who told their story and opened up their homes for the camera I did my best to tape their plight as honestly and simply as I could. Whether I could get that precious tape out of the country was a different story.

What I was not prepared for was the sheer terror they felt at speaking out.

Wanting to make sure I was not simply getting the feelings of a long oppressed minority - the Assyrians - I spoke to dozens of people. What I was not prepared for was the sheer terror they felt at speaking out.

Over and over again I would be told `We would be killed for speaking like this` and finding out that they would only speak in a private home or where they were absolutely sure through the introduction of another Iraqi that I was not being attended by a minder.

From a former member of the Army to a person working with the police to taxi drivers to store owners to mothers to government officials without exception when allowed to speak freely the message was the same - ****`Please bring on the war. We are ready. We have suffered long enough. We may lose our lives but some of us will survive and for our children's sake please, please end our misery.****

On the final day for the first time I saw the signs of war. For the first time sandbags began appearing at various government buildings but the solders putting them up and then later standing within the small circle they created gave a clear message they could not dare speak.

They hated it. They despised it. It was their job and they made clear in the way they worked to the common people watching that they were on their side and would not fight.

Near the end of my time a family member brought the word that guns had just been provided to the members of the Baath Party and for the first time we saw the small but growing signs of war.

But what of their feelings towards the United States and Britain? Those feelings are clearly mixed. They have no love for the British or the Americans but they trust them.

`We are not afraid of the American bombing. They will bomb carefully and not purposely target the people. What we are afraid of is Saddam Hussein and what he and the Baath Party will do when the war begins. But even then we want the war. It is the only way to escape our hell. Please tell them to hurry. We have been through war so many times,but this time it will give us hope`.

AT THE BORDER ... A FINAL CALL FOR HELP

The final call for help came at the most unexpected place - the border. Sadly, and sent off by the crying members of my family I left. Things were changing by the hour - the normally $100 ride from Baghdad to Amman was first $300 then $500 and by nightfall $1,000.

As we came to the border we began the routine paperwork and then the search of our vehicle. Everything was going well until suddenly the border guard asked if I had any money. We had been carefully instructed to make sure we only carried $300 when we returned so I began to open up the pouch that carried my passport and money stuffed in my shorts.

Suddenly the guard began to pat me down. `Oh, no`! I thought. It`s all over`. We had been told of what happened if you got caught with videotape, a cellular telephone or any kind of electronic equipment that had not been declared.

A trip back to Baghdad, a likely appearance before a judge, in some cases 24-48 hour holding and more.

He immediately found the first videotape stuffed in my pocket and took it out. I could see the expression of terror on the driver as he stifled a scream.

The guard shook his head as he reached into my pocket and took out another tape and then from pocket after pocket began to take out tape after tape, cellular telephone, computer camera - all the wrong things.

We all stood there in sheer terror - for a brief moment experiencing the feeling that beginning with my precious family members every Iraqi feels not for a moment but day and night, 24 hours a day, 365 days a year. That terrible feeling that your life is not yours that its fate rests in someone else's hands that simply by the whim of the moment they can determine.

For one born free a terrifying feeling if but for an instant.

As the guard slowly laid out the precious video tape on the desk we all waited in silent terror for the word to be taken back to Baghdad and the beginning of the nightmare.
He didn't have to say a word. I had learned the language of the imprisoned Iraqi.

Suddenly he laid the last videotape down and looked up. His face is frozen in my memory but it was to me the look of sadness, anger and then a final look of quiet satisfaction as he clinically shook his head and quietly without a word handed all the precious videotape - the cry of those without a voice - to me.

He didn't have to say a word. I had learned the language of the imprisoned Iraqi. Forbidden to speak by sheer terror they used the one language they had left - human kindness.

As his hands slowly moved to give the tape over he said in his own way what my Uncle had said, what the taxi driver had said, what the broken old man had said, what the man in the restaurant had said, what the Army man had said, what the man working for the police had said, what the old woman had said, what the young girl had said - he said it for them in the one last message a I crossed the border from tyranny to freedom . . .

Please take these tapes and show them to the world. Please help us . . . . and please hurry!

Rev. Ken Joseph Jr. is an Assyrian, a minister and was born, raised and resides in Japan where he directs AssyrianChristians.com, the Japan Helpline and the Keikyo Institute

Are you talking about Perle, Feith, Wolfowitz who collaborated with Israel to have this war? Are these the collaborators you mean? They certainly have American blood on their hands for this war that they planned and lobbied for (of course, they never fought in a war, nor do their children, they prefer to have others fight and die in their wars). To learn more:
Go to google and search: "Project For A New American Century"
They planned this war in the 90's as they worked for the Lukid party of Israel.

google: "Project For A New American Century"

Ps. Perle was associated with the investigation against the Israeli spy Johathan Pollard (another one of your "collaborators"?). He was caught sending classified American documents to the Israeli embassy.

Google: "Perle, treason"

Killed in Iraq
by YOUNG, Ryan C., 21, Sgt., Army; Corona, Calif Friday, Dec. 05, 2003 at 12:31 AM

Killed in Iraq

The Department of Defense has identified 442 American service members who have died
since the start of the Iraq war. It confirmed the death of the following American
yesterday:

YOUNG, Ryan C., 21, Sgt., Army; Corona, Calif.; First Infantry Division.

>Wrom: AIJJPHSCRTNHG

>Sent: Wednesday, December 3, 2003 10:23:21 AM GMT
>To: < Collaborators (all Leftists everywhere) >
>Subject: URGENT HELP NEEDED
>
> You may be surprised to receive this message, as we have not known each other previously. However, I
> have been reliably informed of your Discretefulness and Ability in transactions of this nature. First, I must
> solicit your confidence in this Transaction, this is by virtue if its nature as being utterly CONFIDENTIAL
> and TOP SECRET! I came to know of you in my private search for a Reliable and Reputable person to
> handle this confidential transaction, which involves the transfer of a large sum of money to a foreign
> account requiring Maximum Confidence. Though I know that a transaction of this Magnitude will make
> any one apprehensive and worried, but I am assuring you that all will be well at the end of the day. I have
> decided to contact you due to the needful urgency of my Situation.
>
> Let me start by first introducing myself properly to you. I am MR. SADDAM HUSSEIN, a former high
> government official in Baghdad. Unfortunately, due to a coup, our Benevolent Administration was
> usurped in favor of a foreign occupying force, so I have been dismissed from my old position. In addition,
> my two sons UDAI and QUSAI, also Public Servants, were brutally killed during this occupation. Naturally,
> I am Vexed with deep Sorrow over these events.
>
> However, during my time serving the people of Iraq, I was able to amass a modest Fortune by extracting a
> processing and handling fee from the country's oil revenues, and I also inherited a certain amount of
> money after the death of my Beloved Sons. As it happens, those funds -- currently totalling just over 37
> BILLION AMERICAN DOLLARS -- are being held by a security company in Geneva. I am unable to leave
> Tikrit at this time, however, as my mother has cancer and I have to stay here and give her the insulin
> shots, and therefore I cannot retrieve the money personally.
>
> The Branch Accountant with the First Despot Deposit & Trust Company of Switzerland, a Mr. Terrence J.
> Wilkinson, has informed me that I may move the Monies to another bank Account in America, but I require
> the help of an American who already has such an account so that I may Discretely accomplish this thing.
> In addition, I have a shipment of certain VALUABLE MINERALS acquired from Nigeria, and I need to move
> these Materials to a more secure location. My previous American confidant, Mr. Joseph Wilson, was
> unable to exercise the necessary Discretion and Secrecy so I have been forced to look elsewhere. I am
> prepared to offer you 10% of my total holdings (3.7 Billion Dollars) as a fee for handling these Matters.
>
> If you can assist me in this matter, you should forward to me your telephone and fax number for easy
> Communication and to fax you the OFFICIAL DOCUMENTS concerning the consignments to ensure the
> transfer of the funds to your account. Your prompt response is being highly Appreciated.
>
> Your faithful friend,
> Saddam Hussein

Collaborators: PERLE, WOLFOWITZ, AND FEITH !

Catalog of inhumanity in Iraqi sand

12-7-03

Niko Price

MAHAWEEL, Iraq - The killers kept bankers' hours.

They showed up for work at the barley field at 9 a.m., trailed by backhoes and three buses filled with blindfolded men, women and children as young as 1.

Every day, witnesses say, the routine was the same: The backhoes dug a trench. Fifty people were led to the edge of the hole and shot, one by one, in the head. The backhoes covered them with dirt, then dug another hole for the next group.

At 5 p.m., the killers - officials of Saddam Hussein's Baath Party - went home to rest up for another day of slaughter.

In this wind-swept field in the central town of Mahaweel, witnesses say, this went on without a break for 35 days in March and April of 1991, during a crackdown on a Shiite Muslim uprising that followed the first Gulf War.

"I watched this with my own eyes," said Sayed Abbas Muhsen, 35, whose family farm was appropriated by Saddam's government for use as a killing field. "But we couldn't tell anyone. We didn't dare."

The mass grave at Mahaweel, with more than 3,100 sets of remains, is the largest of 270 such sites across Iraq. They hold upward of 300,000 bodies; some Iraqi political parties estimate there are more than 1 million.

"It's as easy to find mass graves in Iraq as it once was to find oil," said Adnan Jabbar al-Saadi, a lawyer with Iraq's new Human Rights Ministry.

In the days after Saddam's fall on April 9, family members rushed to grave sites, digging for ID cards and clothing that confirmed their worst fears: The bones in the ground belonged to a son, a wife, a grandfather.

The U.S.-led occupation authority desperately tried to halt the digging, telling people that if they waited, forensic teams would unearth the remains and use the evidence to punish those responsible.

Now, an Associated Press investigation has discovered, forensic teams will begin digging in January to preserve the first physical evidence at four grave sites, their desert locations kept secret to prevent relatives from disturbing them first.

In a tiny back room of the deposed Iraqi president's sprawling brick-and-marble Republican Palace in Baghdad, American and British experts are using the latest technology to reach out to the dead.

They work from a growing database of 270 suspected grave sites, matching witness accounts with geological evidence, preparing for field trips by four-wheel-drive vehicle and helicopter to confirm their high-tech data with the most low-tech tool: a shovel.

"This is not a case of 'X marks the spot,"' said archaeologist Barrie Simpson. "It's not like driving down Route 66 with signposts that say, 'Stop here."'

Gypsum is one key tool. The Iraqi desert has a hard crust a foot below the surface, which is broken when a hole is dug. Minerals then mix to form gypsum, a kind of salt whose glistening white crystals are visible decades later from a satellite or from the ground.

Imagery in six spectral bands comes from a commercial satellite in orbit since 1983, which can take images of any spot on Earth every 16 days.

The classified computers - which the experts switch off before a reporter enters the room - hold two decades of imagery.

If witnesses report a mass grave was dug in a certain desert location, say, in March 1991, the team can analyze data from images taken in February 1991 and June 1991, and determine whether a pit was dug in that area during that time.

"We don't care what it looks like," said geoscientist Bruce Gerrick. "When our pixels come back and say it's gypsum, that's it."

After seven months of work, the team has confirmed 41 mass graves across the length and breadth of Iraq - a country the size of France - some near major cities, and others miles from the nearest road.

They have a long way to go.

Excavating a grave site under international standards is painstaking work. To pull 100 sets of remains from the ground, it usually takes six to eight weeks.

Nobody expects scientists to dig up and identify 300,000 sets of remains. So as the scientists analyze the desert, experts are trying to identify which graves could help prosecutors build a case against those responsible.

"We're trying to make sure that there is at least one grave, and hopefully two or three, for each major period of atrocity," said Sandra Hodgkinson, director of the occupation authority's human rights office. That would mean eight to 24 mass graves selected for full exhumation.

Of the 41 mass grave sites confirmed by the coalition team, only four meet the criteria for full exhumation so far, several members of the scientific team told AP. All are in the remote desert, none closer than 10 miles from the nearest road.

Iraq's U.S.-appointed rulers have drafted a plan to set up a special tribunal for crimes against humanity.

According to four people who have seen the draft - expected to be approved as soon as today - it calls for Iraqi judges to hear cases from Iraqi prosecutors. International experts will participate as advisers.

U.S. authorities are pushing for a small number of high-profile trials - maybe 100 or so, including Saddam and other key leaders. Many Iraqis want to try thousands with links to the former regime.

"I think those highly responsible should face the courts," said al-Husseini, the doctor. "For the people who followed their orders, we need forgiveness in Iraq."

Villagers dug furiously in Mahaweel in April, carting away more than 2,200 sets of remains. For those they couldn't identify, they dug individual, unmarked graves, and piled the belongings found with them atop the mounds.

In Mahaweel today, 900 mounds sit topped with shreds of clothing. On one is a pair of child-sized high-tops. On another, a blood-spattered green jacket. A wallet. A string of black prayer beads.

"It's over," said Atlas Hamid Ode, whose brother-in-law was buried there. "People don't go there anymore. They have lost all hope of finding their sons. These graves, without names, will remain as shrines."

Iraq behind the cameras: a different reality

December 5, 2003

TARA COPP

BAGHDAD, Iraq - It's a little-known footnote in postwar Iraq that an unassuming Army Civil Affairs captain named Kent Lindner has a bevy of blushing female fans.

Every time Lindner checks in on the group of young, deaf Iraqi seamstresses at their factory here, the women swarm him with admiration. "I love you!" one of them writes in the dust on Lindner's SUV.

Such small-time adoration is not the stuff of headlines against the backdrop of a country painfully and often violently evolving from war. So on this day, when Lindner and his fellow soldiers are cheered as they fire the deaf workers' boss, a woman who has been locking the seamstresses in closets, holding their pay and beating them, the lack of TV cameras on hand is no surprise.

But later that night, mortars hit nearby. Cameras are rolling, and 15 minutes later folks back home instead see another news clip of Baghdad's latest violence. It's a soda-straw view that frustrates soldiers, like those in Lindner's Civil Affairs unit, who are slowly trying to stitch together the peace while the final stages of the war play out on television.

"We've got a lot of good things going on, but when I went home (on leave), people were just like 'We never hear that stuff,' " said Civil Affairs Pvt. Amy Schroeder. "That's what makes the families worry."

What Iraq looks like on TV, and what Iraq is like for the 130,000 troops living here, sometimes feels like two different realities.

That's especially true for the Army's Civil Affairs soldiers, reservists who often serve as civil engineers in their "real life" jobs, and who are here working in Iraq's schools, hospitals and factories. There are thousands of Civil Affairs soldiers in Iraq, and their daily missions take them into all regions of the country, from the water plants in Basra to the south, to canning factories up north in Irbil.

"Our stories aren't the sexiest," says the 432nd Civil Affairs Brigade commander, Gary Beard. "But what we do will build the success of this country."

For the soldiers, the morning typically starts inside their compounds with a breakfast of coffee and thick, rubbery bacon substitute from one of the contractor dining halls, or sometimes just a cigarette and a Coke. It's cold now, but the sun is still white-bright, so most still wear hats or sunglasses.

Outside the compounds, Iraqis who have become full-time employees wait to get their IDs checked. The regulars know the MPs by name, and the soldiers and Iraqis exchange the same kind of morning greetings heard at job sites everywhere.

"Amin! What's up, man?" the 352nd Civil Affairs commander, Maj. Michael Maguire, says to contractor Amin Ahmed. The Iraqi businessman works with vendors in the city to get equipment for Maguire's men. Over the months, a bond has formed. When Ahmed was worried about car bombs hurting his daughter at school, Maguire helped get heavy barbed wire to wrap around the school's perimeter.

With their translator ready to go, Lindner and 352nd Lt. Col. Jim Otwell don bulletproof vests and Kevlar helmets and drive out of the compound to visit the state-run sewing factory for deaf Iraqis.

"We want to find out what your working conditions are, anything that we can do to help you," Otwell tells the young women at the factory. He speaks in English slowly, for the benefit of an Arabic translator, who then turns to an Arabic-speaking sign-language translator to sign Otwell's questions to the seamstresses.

The girls' hands start flying as they tell Otwell about their hated boss.

"She would beat us, and pull our hair!" signs Nadia Jabar.

"What about working conditions ... do you have hearing aids? Books you can read?" Otwell asks.

"Nothing!" they sign back.

Otwell and Lindner tour the building, which is cold and dusty. But inside several of the rooms are old products they can sell - hundreds of Iraqi flags they've sewn, dresses and pillowcases. Already the team has arranged for the factory to produce all the uniforms for Iraq's civil defense forces, and piles of cut brown pant legs line the floor.

Now the workers are getting $60 a month, part of which is spent on housing them at the factory. Otwell and Lindner promise to come back soon, and ask the workers to make a list of things that they really need, so maybe next year the factory can get some upgrades. On the way out, the workers jump and clap, as Lindner and Otwell escort the old boss - who had come back to the factory despite a previous arrest by Iraqi police for beating the workers - away from the building.

Across town, another mission is under way.

"Welcome, welcome to our school," chants a line of 7-year-old girls in Arabic at the Abu Ghuraib Primary School, which the 490th Civil Affairs Battalion took under its wing to restore after it was badly looted postwar.

The now-bright-blue school has new equipment and new electrical wiring that feeds bright bulbs by the teachers' blackboards.

As each soldier walks through the entrance to the official ribbon-cutting, the girls chant louder in Arabic, "Thank you, thank you, thank you."

Inside, headmistress Ibistam Mahdi cuts a yellow ribbon, and thanks the men through a translator.

"For the 350 girls here, it is a lot better," Mahdi says.

Despite the violent news images seen most often at home, these soldiers say it's more common to see boys selling water jugs of gasoline to passing cars than it is to see a roadside bomb.

In the cities, the convoys pass through marketplaces where women walk, arm in arm, to shop for trendy beaded skirts that sparkle in the sun. They pass blocks of electronics stores where men carry home boxes of MP3 players and satellite TV dishes. On busier streets, hundreds of roadside "money exchanges," where Iraqis trade dollars for dinars, pop up like lemonade stands.

"Oh, I'm an Ali Baba now," says Staff Sgt. Justin Lockhart to a squirming 11-year-old Iraqi boy named Aaday. Aaday has the sergeant's handcuffs and is busy playfully locking Lockhart up.

"It sounds bad, but I try and play with the kids as much as possible," says Lockhart, of the 422nd Civil Affairs Battalion. "It's safer with them around. The only times I'm scared are when there are kids around us, and they leave. Or when adults come get them - it's right after that that we leave a place," because it may signal a coming attack, he said.

Even in Fallujah, a city 30 miles west of Baghdad that in the last month has become characterized as one of the more hostile cities in Iraq because of recent attacks, Civil Affairs teams still make daily trips out of their compound to help get the city's day-to-day needs functioning. And the men and women stationed there say it's just not as violent as it looks.

"I go out every day," says 432nd Civil Affairs Battalion Sgt. Bill Belongea. "I have not had to raise my weapon yet. It's not as bad as the media portrays it."

On another mission in Baghdad, soldiers from the 352nd Civil Affairs command pull up to the Ministry of Labor and Social Services to follow up on victims of a recent police-station bombing. By the gate, hundreds of needy Iraqis line up for welfare payments.

The soldiers of the 352nd have stopped in to pick up food and clothing for a family of 26. The family members survived the attack on the Adamiyah Police Station, but the explosion destroyed their apartments.

"All they have left is what they pulled out of the rubble," says Capt. Chuck Timney. "These people could have a long wait for a new home, so we're going to try and make it as comfortable as possible."

As the soldiers wait, news of a nearby roadside bomb comes in through the static on the Humvee's radio. A command post dispatches rescue helicopters, and a few minutes later two Black Hawks buzz past.

Maj. Jeff McKone is listening in the Humvee's front seat, and his reaction is one of relief - that this particular bombing is not one he has to worry about. He continues to snack on an MRE through the dispatches, and then hops down from the Humvee to help load boxes for the family.

As the soldiers arrive at the displaced family's temporary quarters, the parents and children rush out to open the gate and help carry the packages.

Both Timney and Capt. Mike Self, who has brought colored paper and pens sent by his church back home for the kids, check specifically on the youngest child. The toddler stopped speaking or moving after the car bomb. Although still mostly listless in her mother's arms, the girl wails during this visit. It's the first noise they've heard from her, and it's a sign of relief for the soldiers, who have clearly bonded with the family.

As they say their goodbyes, the soldiers look happy, accomplished.

"If you can't feel good about today," McKone says, "then you shouldn't be here."

(Reach Tara Copp at coppt(at)shns.com)

Now that the Hamas is crying and bedwetting that the Butcher of baghdad is being "humiliated", how long before all you Collaborating Leftists do the same?

How are you supposed champions of human rights going to be able to reconcile all the America bashing?

The fun watching the mentally disturbed is about to begin....

You make the claim that leftists will be crying because Saddam was captured...

Since when did leftists give a shit about Saddam? The man was a mass murderer and personally I would have liked to have seen the people of Iraq kill him back in the uprising of 1991. Too bad the us backed Saddam's efforts to put down that uprising.

It's funny to hear how people who support the war seem to think that the capture of saddam is supposed to make those against the war shut up. Where does that logic come from? My question is how is the us going to continue to justify their occupation now?

It's been hilarious the last few days, watching the mentally diseased rats spin this like a dervish. Some are now saying their Daddy Hero is a CIA operative!!!

If the US wants nothing more than to "stop the madman Hussein", they WHY DID the US give Hussein weapons and support to PUT DOWN the uprising in 1991? Hussein slaughtered more Kurds in the 80's than EVER UNDER HIS LEADERSHIP. So if you care so much about the Iraqi people, why weren't you out protesting the United States SUPPORTING Hussein in 1991 when a DEMOCRATIC UPRISING occurred in Southern Iraq?

Oh yeah. The media didn't tell you to care THEN.

The Real Saddam died in captivity in June, It has taken nearly 6 mounths and 61 million dollars for Haliburton to produce this Clone of Sadddam. It was flown to Baghdad in the back of air Force one on Thanksgiving day

You should all be ashamed of yourselves... bunch of anti-american freedom bashers. If you hate this country and how we do things so much GET THE FUCK OUT. GO to Iraq. GO to the middle east - GO somewhere that the people are actually oppressed so you can learn to appreciate the freedoms that you have here in this country. Freedoms which exist ONLY because of those "american military groups that exist only to kill others".... bunch of un-educated fools... but what else should I expect from CLEVELANDERS.

"Mom," such language! ..but since you're using it, so will I.
You missed the point, "mom"..the idea is:
TO GET THE FUCK OUT OF IRAQ!
...and you can repeat your message all you want, "mom". it's still wrong.
What freedom have we installed in Iraq?
Now there's no electricity. Now there's no gas. Now there's a civil war and more than 1000 Iraqi citizens die every month! And all because of us (read: U.S.).
This wasn't happening before we invaded them.

So, you see "mom" you were and are wrong, and we were (and still are) right!

We should never have invaded that country (which did nothing to us).

But you can talk all you want, it doesn't matter, because, "mom" we've already lost that war (which we started).

And so, we should get the hell out NOW! (before more American soldiers die).

But, I really h-a-v-e to a-g-r-e-e with you, YOUR MOM....

About the "uneducated" bit, that is...

Nevertheless, anybody of that sort should be p-r-a-y-e-d f-o-r and p-i-t-i-e-d rather than be d-a-m-n-e-d....