We're going to take a break from the sports blogging for just a bit, and turn to the situation on the ground in Iraq. Why? Well, as it turns out, a friend of mine has spent the last two months in the region as part of something called a Disaster Assistance Response Team (DART).
To clarify, she's not a U.S. Government employee. Instead, she's a contractor with a software company that specializes in disaster assistance. The U.S. Agency for International Development, a part of the State Department, dispatched these teams all over the region before the start of the war to be in position to provide humanitarian assitance to Iraq.
My friend has been stationed out of Amman, and she's been sending periodic updates on what's been happening. She's had more than a few interesting things to say -- including the fact that the citizens in Jordan seem to be friendlier to Americans than many of the press accounts that I've read.
When I saw that some of the things she had been saying in her notes gibed with an item I read on Instapundit, I shot a note to Glenn Reynolds summarizing the things my friend had told me. You can find Glenn's summary of my note by clicking here.
Use the map to folllow my friend's route across Iraq.
Over this past weekend my friend took a trip with her DART into Western Iraq, and she just sent me a long email which I'm excerpting here. Her trip lasted a little more than three days.
On 4/26, she and her team left Amman and headed East to Iraq, making camp for the night in Ar Rutbah -- the first city you find in Iraq after cross the desert no-man's land seperating two nations. On 4/27 they headed East, hoping to make the city of Ramadi: unfortunately, authorities had deemed the city a "permissive environment," Army speak for "crawling with bad guys." Instead, they turned Northwest, stopping in the town of Hit (pronounced "heat"), before eventually stopping for the night in Haditha, the location of a hydroelectric dam currently being repaired by a team of Iraqis and the Army Corps of Engineers. The dam itself if being guarded by the 101st Airborne.
On 4/28 thing got a little hairy. That morning her team moved North, heading for the village of Anah. Apparently, the city had a small hospital that they suspected needed some help. Unfortunately, their stay was brief, as they were told in no uncertain terms by the locals that the city was still controlled by elements loyal to Saddam. High-tailing it out of Anah, they turned South again, hoping to get some guidance on whether or not it was safe to travel to Ramadi -- a call that never came. Instead, her team headed for Ar Rutbah for the night and returned to Amman on 4/29.
Needless to say, I'm proud of my friend and the work she and her team are doing. No, she's not knee-deep in a shooting war, but as recent events have shown, Iraq is still a very dangerous place. Her team is travelling with local guides, not military escort, something that makes her trip all the more harrowing. Overall, she feels the Americans are being welcomed warmly, and she feels plenty of hope for the people of Iraq.
I'm just hoping she gets back home soon, and safe.
For more details from her note, click the link below. I've interjected with commentary of my own where I feel appropriate.
From April 26th:
The actual crossing into Iraq was rather uneventful -- just the long road to Baghdad.
Wow. Thanks for the info. It’s nice to hear things directly from people who are actually there that hasn’t been filtered through a phalanx of editors, stripped of useful information, and loaded with ideological baggage.
Thanks for putting this up. It’s so nice to get an actual first hand account about what is happening. I hope that everything goes well for the Iraqis, but all you hear on the news is bad. You never hear about these little towns outside of Baghdad. Everything there seems to be going rather normally, or as normal as it can be.
Great post — thank you. I’m always very happy to hear the first hand reports.
Previous to the start of the war I saw interviews and quotes from a Scottish Labour MP, George Galloway, ranting against, war in Iraq, Pres. Bush and the Allied efforts towards freeing Iraq on each of the major newscasts. I can only conclude that the reason we saw this person on ABC,CBS and NBC was to bolster the perception that a vast majority of high ranking Scottish officials and its people were not supporting the War effort. You may recall that I spoke to some of our relatives who said that what we saw in the media was not what the people really thought. That the majority supported the effort wholeheartedly.
Now I see from reading the Scottish Press http://news.scotsman.com/topics.cfm?tid=818 Mr. Galloway has been linked directly to Saddam, for accepting illegal cash contributions from the Regime and other acts. In addition there is the prospect that he will be tried by the British under the Incitement to Disaffection Act of 1934 http://www.thesun.co.uk/article/0,,2-2003191123,00.html.
Yet I have not seen any reports from the US National Media regarding this paid lackey’s actions. I guess this is just another example of the Mainstream media bias or reporting just what suits their agenda. From my prospective, as an expatriate Scot, Glaswegian, and naturalized American citizen, I was ashamed that in some ways Scotland and its people were being represented in America by what Mr. Galloway was saying.
Then I came across this article,
http://www.mediaresearch.org/realitycheck/2003/fax20030430.asp which recounts his interviews and statements in the US media previous to the end of the major fighting. I was appalled by the pre and during the war statements made by Galloway, now I am more incensed that the reasons for his position have not been exposed by the so-called national media outlets that covered him to illustrate that sentiment in Scotland and the rest of the UK was against the US.
Since you are the writer in the family I hope that you would illustrate, on your page, Mr. Galloway’s position and the relevations of his connections to Iraq and Saddam. And in some way refute this blemish on Scotland.
Thanks
Dad