Iraq:Anbar Awakening

Remember Anbar Province? No? Well, it's the place that all sorts of bad things were happening. Michael Totten is over there reporting. Here's just a tidbit:

I cannot tell you how many times I heard someone say “Mom, it's fine here,” when talking to family members back home on the phone. “Don't believe everything you see on TV.”

For those intent on viewing soldiers as murderous cretins, there's this:

“I love fighting,” he said. “Well, not fighting exactly, at least not for its own sake. I mean, I love forcing an oppressor to stop abusing a defenseless person. I love telling him this isn't your day. I can't imagine anything more satisfying than that.”

Finally, considering the sacrifice of Iraqis:

I had heard this before. Maybe the majority of Americans who work closely with Iraqis feel something like this. Despite the corruption. Despite the incompetence. Despite the fact that some of them act like a bunch of third graders. The Iraqis really are brave, even if it doesn't look that way sometimes from far away or even up close. They are fighting for their survival in ways most Americans can barely imagine. Their enemy is possibly the most ferocious group of indigenous killers in the entire history of Mesopotamia.

Read the whole thing. This is the real news you're not getting if you're watching it on TV.