Redstate

By Jeff Emanuel Posted in War — Comments (2) / Email this page » / Leave a comment »

Jeff's reports from Iraq are available here.

As many of you know, I've been embedded on the front lines in Iraq for several weeks now, and will be here until mid-October. Like last time, this has been an amazing and eye-opening experience, which offers insight -- from the ground level -- into the extremely complex and fluid situation in Iraq, as well as into the day-to-day lives of Iraqis and operations of our military forces there.

Read on . . .

As mentioned here and elsewhere, I've personally observed clinics in which coalition medics and doctors provided Iraqi tribesmen and villagers with a level of care that had been unheard-of in this country even before the fall of Saddam Hussein. I've toured reconstruction sites being worked on by Iraqi contractors, and have ridden along in gun-truck escorts whose job is to protect these men as they work to rebuild their own country (while terrorists try not only to kill them, but to destroy any and all improvements they have managed to provide for their countrymen in infrastructure and quality of life).

I've sat in on meetings – both above-board and clandestine – with sheiks and tribal leaders, who want the coalition to help them help themselves and their people to achieve better and more secure lives, despite the fact that being seen consorting with the Americans immediately puts a price on each of these leaders’ heads; likewise, I have heard the concern voiced – more times than I can even count – that the coalition, which currently remains the sole source of stability and security in this country, will give in to the cries from home to abandon the Iraqi people to death, and will finally do so.

I have participated in combat operations which were driven solely by intelligence provided by Iraqi citizens who knew of terrorist plots and personnel in the area and called the Americans to let them know; likewise, I, like the soldiers whom I have covered, have had my life saved several times by tips from the Iraqi citizenry about IEDs and ambushes put into place to kill us.

All this is to say, I have been fortunate enough to have a view of Iraq that few outside the US military have gotten. Very few journalists that come here have been fortunate enough to see and do what I have, and there is much more to see and do before I wrap up this frontline embed in October.

As you have doubtless noticed, very few of my articles and updates have appeared here at RedState - and I feel that I would be a very bad Director of this site if I didn't explain the two reasons for that. The first is, at the various combat outposts and patrol bases from which I post updates and file articles between missions, the bandwidth to even load RS is frequently lacking. Second, as most of you know, I (like Mike Yon, Bill Roggio, and the few others who do this) depend entirely on reader donations not only to come here, but also to maintain and replace equipment, to travel, and to pay for combat zone insurance (which can run up to $1,500 per week -- and my site (www.JeffEmanuel.com) is the only one currently equipped to take those donations.

As a result, all of my dispatches, updates, and articles (and there are many, many more than the number that has appeared here), regardless of where they are published, are posted and linked at my site. Feel free to stop by there and check them out -- and, if you are so inclined, to drop a little something in the tip jar. This mission can't happen without your help.

I've also been maintaining a diary at www.VetsForFreedom.com.

I apologize for my sparse appearing (and posting) here at RedState, both on Iraq and on everything else I usually cover here; rest assured that I'll be back on the ball at the end of October, when I'm back from the battlefront in Iraq. Until then, come on by my site to check up on the latest from the war.

Thanks again for all of your support,

Jeff