Corrections and Clarifications

If you scroll down two posts below this one you will see a picture of a soldier on patrol in Iraq where it appears he is "shooting the bird" at the photographer...it has come to my attention that this may not really be the case.

Please go to Confederate Yankee and see his take on it. It's worth considering.

And another thing...

I've had several remarks on the blog trying their best to enlighten me and the other unwashed exactly how it is that all is lost in Iraq and the war machine just grinds on oblivious to that fact.

Can you tell me how many actions coalition forces have been involved in during the past 24 hours in the Baghdad AO? How many AIF have been detained or killed in the same period of time? You read about a car bomb or suicide bomber in the paper, but exactly how many AIF actions took place today versus a week ago, two weeks, a month or last year?

The answer is you don't know...the reason I know you don't know is because the coalition doesn't release that information. The why fors and how tos is beyond my level, and I'm sure there are those out there will gin up various conspiracies for why they don't release the numbers or if they did how the numbers are skewed to favor the desired outcome. Whatever, I don't really give a damn what you have to say about that. For someone sitting in Chicago to tell me my observations about combat and the war in Iraq are wrong, is like me telling Neil Armstrong he's full of crap when he tells me about what it was like to walk on the moon.

I have a unique position as a helicopter pilot, I get the broad overview of the city every time I fly. As an attack pilot I usually end up going to the bad spots, where there are troops in contact, roadside MEDIVACs and other ugly things that you don't want to see. Lately there have been a lot less of these ugly things. I write what I see and I become the spreader of government propaganda...I guess so, in bizarro world. If you have a different view than mine about things, that's cool, that's your right as an American citizen...but please don't lecture me about things I see with my own two eyes every day of the week.

For those who want to quit, that's great, that's your opinion...but understand the end result of your actions and accept responsibility for said same.

Those who actively campaign for our immediate withdrawal (because it won't and can't practically happen...even if we wanted it to) only serve to encourage our enemies to fight on, because their relief is just a unilateral surrender away. So thanks for your non support...my comrades in arms and I appreciate it.