Congresswoman Juanita Millender-McDonald: RIP

Rep. Millender-McDonald has filled many offices which allowed her to serve our country, and today she has finally gone home to her reward. She is 68 years old.

She died of cancer, as did Rep. Norwood earlier this year. I suppose I should mention that Juanita was a Democrat, and Charles Norwood was a Republican. We do not know what type of cancer, and I was not even aware she was ill.

Ya see, she was my Congresswoman. While we were on different sides of the aisle, she was always courteous and active. For a Democrat, she was a great lady. May you rest in peace, and may God comfort all of those who have been left to carry on. God bless you all.

Rep. Juanita Millender-McDonald, D-Calif. meets reporters on Capitol Hill, in this Nov. 29, 2005 file photo. Millender-McDonald, D-Calif., died early Sunday, April 22, 2007 of cancer, an aide said. (AP Photo/Pablo Martinez Monsivais, File)

Source: Peter Prengaman of AP.

Coalition, Afghan Forces Counter Taliban Offensive

By Jim Garamone
American Forces Press Service

WASHINGTON, April 18, 2007 – Coalition and Afghan National Army operations have blunted the Taliban spring offensive in eastern Afghanistan, Army Brig. Gen. Joseph Votel said at a Pentagon news conference today.

Votel, the deputy commanding general for operations for Combined Joint Task Force 82, spoke to reporters via a video hook-up.

Votel said coalition operations seem to have countered the long-anticipated Taliban spring offensive.

“We have been more offensive than I think they have in our posturing and in our ability to dominate areas on the battlefield,” Votel said. “As a result of that, I think we’ve seen a decrease in activities along the border. And our ability to be in more places, along with our Afghan national security force partners, has enabled us to address a broader area across Regional Command East.”

Coalition and Afghan leaders began preparing to counter the Taliban offensive over the winter. More NATO and U.S. troops are in the country, there is closer cooperation with Pakistani forces, and more Afghan forces moved to the border area to stop Taliban infiltration. This seems to have paid off, Votel said.

“So I would not necessarily characterize it as any kind of offensive,” he said. “We certainly haven’t seen it manifest itself to any great degree.”

There have been attacks, the general said, “but we have not seen what I would describe as a spring offensive by the Taliban.”

Regional Command East is part of the NATO-led International Security Assistance Force in Afghanistan. U.S., NATO and Afghan forces continue to hunt Taliban and al Qaeda terrorists. The command helps train Afghan soldiers, police and border patrol personnel. It also helps extend the influence and control of the central and provincial governments.

The command is in the midst of Operation Eagle Teamwork, which builds on the counterinsurgency strategy of clear, hold and build.

“In the clear phase, we are focusing on separating the insurgents from the population,” Votel said. “This requires the Afghan national security forces’ participation at all levels to kill or capture the enemy and disrupt his command and control capability. To this end, we are conducting military operations in the interior of the country and along the border area with Pakistan.”

In the hold phase, the command helps the Afghan government establish a permanent presence in the region. In the build phase, the command invests in developing and expanding government capabilities into these provincial and district areas, the general said.

“We are working very closely with the U.S. Agency for International Development and other national and international non-governmental organizations to ensure our military operations are quickly followed by reconstruction and development activities that extend the reach and influence of the district, provincial and national governments,” he said.

Regional Command East has spent more than $125 million of the Commanders Emergency Response Program funds to make a difference in the lives of Afghans in the region, Votel said.

“Our top development efforts are focused on provincial coordination centers, district coordination centers, the development and capacity building within the Afghan national security forces, roads, agriculture, border security, education and health care,” he said.

In the past three months, the command has funded 14 agricultural projects, more than 60 educational projects, about 20 electricity projects and more than 40 health care projects. “Water is a key aspect here in Afghanistan, and as a result, we’ve worked 25 irrigation projects, repairing dams, water systems, flood walls and canals,” Votel said.

Roads are key in the landlocked country. The command has nearly 65 transportation projects — roads, bridges, and retaining walls — under way, the general said.

U.S. soldiers have taken the news that they must serve 15-month tours in Afghanistan in stride, Votel said. “Nobody wants to stay any longer than they’re required to stay here in Afghanistan,” he said. “But that said, you know, we are relatively early on in our deployment here. It was not unexpected completely that we might be extended.

“I think in talking to most soldiers out there – and I do have a pretty good opportunity to get around and visit with them and talk to them – they are glad to be here participating in this mission,” he continued. “They believe in it. And I think they’re committed to stay and accomplish the mission. And we will trust that our leaders will be taking care of our families and get us back as soon as we can and when we’ve completed our portion of the mission.”

Iraq Resolution Important to Region, World

By Kathleen T. Rhem
American Forces Press Service.

CAIRO, Egypt, April 18, 2007 – The situation in Iraq dominates the political landscape of the United States and of Middle Eastern countries, where citizens have “watched developments in that country with growing concern,” U.S. Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates told a group of American businessmen here today.

Speaking to the American Chamber of Commerce here, Gates urged people to put aside disagreements they might have “over how we got to this point in Iraq,” and realize how devastating a failed state in Iraq could be.

“The consequences of a failed state in Iraq, of chaos there, will adversely affect the security and prosperity of every nation in the Middle East and the Gulf region,” he said. “There may be some who, over resentment or disagreements over what happened in the past, might be cheering for failure.”

The secretary called such sentiments “dangerously short-sighted and self-destructive.”

“The first and second effects of a collapse in Iraq — with all of its economic, religious, security and geopolitical implications — will be felt in capitals and communities in the Middle East well before they are felt in Washington and in New York,” Gates said. “The forces that would be unleashed — of sectarian strife, of an emboldened extremist movement with access to sanctuaries — do not recognize or respect national boundaries.”

He stressed that the primary victims of violence in Iraq are not American, coalition or Iraqi servicemembers, but “tens of thousands of innocent civilians — men, women and children whose major crime was to go to the market or to attend Friday prayers.”

“Where extremists have seized and controlled territory in the past — in western Iraq, eastern Afghanistan, or elsewhere — the result has been misery, poverty and fear,” Gates said. “We have seen the future promised by the extremists: a dark, joyless existence personified not by piety and virtue, but by the executioner and the suicide bomber.”

Gates also explained the importance of the Baghdad security plan, “a strategy focused on providing basic security to the Iraqi people,” which is under way now.

“The immediate goal is to create the breathing room necessary to allow reform and reconciliation to go forward, steps that will give all of Iraq’s communities — majority and minorities alike — a stake in that nation’s future,” he continued.

During a meeting this morning, Gates thanked Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak for the Egyptian leader’s willingness to host and meet with Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki later this week and to host an upcoming conference of Iraq’s neighbors to try to form regional solutions to Iraq’s problems.

During the speech to the Chamber of Commerce group, the secretary urged Iraq’s neighbors “to play a constructive role going forward.”

“We certainly encourage Iraq’s Arab neighbors to use their influence to dampen homegrown insurgency and alleviate sectarian conflict,” Gates said. “Other nations who have not been good neighbors to Iraq, such as Syria and Iran, should start becoming part of the regional solution that encourages political reconciliation and reduces violence.”

In response to a question from the audience, Gates said he believes progress is being made in Iraq, but political reconciliation progress could be moving more quickly.

“I believe that Iraq’s neighbors can help facilitate that reconciliation process, and I think that could all come together relatively quickly once the different sectarian factions or groups in Iraq decide to live together peacefully with one another,” he said.

Suicide Bomb Attacks Present Top Challenge in Iraq, Fallon Says

By Gerry J. Gilmore
American Forces Press Service

WASHINGTON, April 18, 2007 – Suicide-bomb attacks on coalition and Iraqi troops and civilians, orchestrated by Al Qaeda and Sunni extremists, present the top challenge in establishing security and stability in Iraq, the commander of U.S. Central Command testified at a Congressional hearing on Capitol Hill today.

“Of all the things that we have on the plate in Iraq, the one that I think is first and foremost as a target for us to try to get a grip on and to neutralize is the group that is very clearly al Qaeda-motivated that is linked to Sunni extremists in this country that are perpetrating these big suicide bombings,” Navy Adm. William J. Fallon told House Armed Services Committee members.

Al Qaeda in Iraq and affiliated Sunni extremists want to kill and maim U.S. troops in Iraq in order to sap the coalition’s will, Fallon said. The extremists also want to kill and injure as many civilians as possible to foment sectarian strife and destabilize the new Iraqi government.

“In Iraq, we need an essential degree of security and stability so that the fledgling institutions in this country can actually be able to benefit the citizens,” Fallon said, adding he’d like to see “a substantially reduced level of bloodshed and violence.”

Fallon took over as CENTCOM’s chief March 16. Since then, he told the committee, he’s traveled to Iraq, Afghanistan and other Middle Eastern couintries that come under his command’s purview.

After discussions with key U.S. and Iraqi military and civilian leaders and sifting through reams of data, Fallon said, he found significant signs of a reduction in the number of murders and other kinds of sectarian violence in Iraq.

“However, I will tell you quite honestly that it bothers me and I hold my breath regularly in anticipation, regrettably, of the suicide bombers,” Fallon said. “These people that are just seemingly, totally bent on creating as much chaos and bloodshed as possible, particularly against the civilian communities. I think we are challenged to work against this problem.”

The best way to circumvent al Qaeda’s strategy in Iraq is to convince the country’s Sunni population that it has a viable stake in the new Iraq’s future, Fallon said.

The al Qaeda-Sunni extremist nexus “is the most destabilizing” element in Iraq today, he reiterated.

A key to establishing stability across Iraq is to convince its people there’s a better life for them down the road, the admiral said.

“I’d like to see a place in which people have confidence that their future is going to be better than what they’d seen in the past and what they have today,” Fallon said. “And how we’re going to measure that (Iraqi confidence) is one of the key things that I’m working on right now.”

Fallon: Radical Islamic Leader’s Aims Remain a Puzzle

By Gerry J. Gilmore
American Forces Press Service

WASHINGTON, April 18, 2007 – The intentions of radical Islamic cleric Muqtada al-Sadr largely remain cloudy amid the shifting sands of power politics in the new Iraq, the commander of U.S. Central Command testified at a Congressional hearing today.

“This is a guy that’s pretty difficult to understand for us,” Navy Adm. William J. Fallon told House Armed Services Committee members. “He holds, clearly, a large amount of influence within segments of the Iraqi population, but of late he has been absent.”

Sadr is a Baghdad-based Shiite religious leader who commands the Mahdi Army militia, which has fought U.S. and Iraqi troops on many occasions.

The fiery cleric advocates an immediate withdrawal of U.S. military forces from Iraq. But, he has mostly disappeared from public view since the mid-February start of the surge of U.S. and Iraqi forces into Baghdad and parts of western Iraq, Fallon noted.

“By all accounts he appears to be in Iran,” Fallon commented on reports of Sadr’s whereabouts. Yet, the cleric’s “particularly nasty” militia members, he said, remain a nuisance to U.S. and coalition troops in the Baghdad area.

News reports attribute the recent resignation of six Sadr loyalists in the Iraqi Cabinet as a stunt arranged by the cleric to protest the lack of a timetable for the withdrawal of U.S. troops from Iraq.

Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates said yesterday during a visit to Amman, Jordan, that the cabinet resignations may prove to be advantageous to the Iraqi government. The secretary acknowledged that Sadr’s motives are unclear at this point and remain, for now, “a mystery.”

Fallon said not one of Sadr’s many public proclamations issued since the fall of Saddam Hussein’s regime have been helpful to the coalition or the new Iraqi government.

Yet, Sadr’s militia hasn’t tried to stop the movement of U.S. and Iraqi security forces into Baghdad as the surge continues, the admiral noted.

However, the cleric’s followers “are attacking our forces sporadically,” Fallon said. There is currently no indication of a Mahdi Army-staged mass uprising against U.S. troops, he added.

Fallon told the House committee that most Iraqi citizens are weary of sectarian strife and bloodshed and are likely not interested in Sadr’s overtures for continued violence. It’s therefore important, he said, that Iraqi leaders publicly denounce the extremists at every opportunity.

The admiral took over as CENTCOM’s commander March 16. Since then, he told the committee, he’s traveled to Iraq, Afghanistan and other Middle Eastern countries that come under his command’s purview.

After discussions with key U.S. and Iraqi military and civilian leaders and sifting through reams of data, Fallon said he sees significant signs of a reduction in the number of murders and other kinds of sectarian violence in Iraq.

Iraqi Police Join the Security Mission in Diwaniyah

Multi-National Division, Baghdad
4th Brigade Combat Team, 25th Infantry Division

DIWANIYAH, Iraq, April 10, 2007 — Operation Black Eagle moved into a new phase of operations with the Iraqi police joining the Iraqi army and Coalition Forces in security operations here, April 8.

Iraqi police began manning key checkpoints throughout the city, further adding to the security forces already in place.

“The Iraqi police are now out in force helping to enforce the rule of law in Diwaniyah,” said Col. Michael Garrett, commander of the 4th Brigade Combat Team (Airborne), 25th Infantry Division.

The Iraqi police were not involved in the initial operation for many reasons. They were asked to stay at their stations in order to protect them from the possibility of reprisal attacks from the militias.

“The Iraqi Police lacked the training necessary to conduct this type of operation,” said Brig. Gen. Sadiq Jafar Ali, provincial police chief. “Thanks to the help and expertise of the Iraqi army and Coalition Forces, the Iraqi police will now be able to cooperate with them to secure the city.”

The Iraqi army was asked by the government of Iraq to rid the town of militia members and other terrorist groups who had waged a campaign of murder and intimidation against the people of Diwaniyah and the security forces charged with protecting them.

Summing up the attacks, Maj. Gen. Oothman Farhood, commander of the 8th Iraqi army Division and leader of the assault against the militia, mentioned hundreds of attacks and dozens of kidnappings and murders in the city.

“We have received more than 700 requests for the help of the Iraqi army from the people of Diwaniyah,” he said. “The Iraqi army is here for the people of Iraq and to help the Iraqi police provide security for the citizens of Diwaniyah.”

According to Oothman, Operation Black Eagle has achieved tremendous success, but much work remains. From capturing terrorists and their weapons to giving the people of Diwaniyah the hope of returning to their normal lives, the cooperation of the Iraqi army and their counterparts is moving into the next phase of operations.

Fighting continued in the city April 8 as the Iraqi Army and Coalition Forces captured 39 militia members and several larges caches of weapons and explosives.

“We have freed the people of Diwaniyah from murder and intimidation that have plagued the city 24 hours a day, seven days a week for months,” Oothman said.

Even with the assurances, concerns remain about the future security of the city once the Iraqi Army and Coalition Forces leave the city. “As with all wars, this is not a one or two-day event,” Oothman stated. “We are going to be here until we have returned security and stability to Diwaniyah.”

Maj. Gen. Pawel Lamla, commander of the Multi National Division-Central South, also talked about a long and thorough rebuilding and restructuring plan.

“As you can see, we are here together as a coalition of many countries for a common goal,” he said. “We are here for the benefit of the city of Diwaniyah and its people.”

Lamla also discussed the next phase of Operation Black Eagle, securing the city and repairing damage caused by the fighting.

“The terrorists and militias seek to destroy the city. We want to destroy the militias and rebuild and repair the damages that have occurred,” Lamla said. He also talked of the link between the new Baghdad security plan and the on-going operations in Diwaniyah.

“As the Baghdad security plan goes into its next phase, we will do the same. We are going to establish joint security stations throughout the city. The Iraqi Army and police will supervise the stations alongside Coalition Forces,” Lamla said. “With the JSS (Joint Security Station), we will maintain a constant presence within the city and improve the capability of the Iraqi police at the same time.

“As soon as the Iraqi police are capable, we will return security responsibilities to them,” Lamla continued. “Until then, we will do what is required, for as long as it takes to make Diwaniyah safe.”

Photo: Iraqi army troops and policemen patrol the streets of Diwaniyah, Iraq, alongside soldiers and paratroopers from Multi National Division-Central South and Multi National Division-Baghdad during Operation Black Eagle, April 8, 2007. U.S. Army photo by Sgt. 1st Class Steven Childers.

Airmen, Soldiers Mentor Afghan Medical Instructors

10 April 2007
By Staff Sgt. Carlos Diaz
U.S. Central Command Air Forces Public Affairs

CAMP EGGERS, Afghanistan – A team of five highly-skilled Air Force and Army medics mentor Afghan National Army instructors at the combat medic school in Kabul.

Their mission is to guide the ANA instructors into leading the combat medic course, which was recently extended to eight weeks. As instructors, they serve as mentors and help promote the growth and professionalism of the ANA’s road to self-sufficiency.

“The ANA has never had medics in the field,” said Army Master Sgt. Jeffrey Ryle, combat medic course instructor. “So, after further discussions with the ANATEC (Afghan National Army Training and Education Command), a combat medic course was implemented.”

The course teaches basic emergency medical technician information, anatomy and physiology theory, airway management and patient assessment, just to name a few.

Initially, the course was six weeks, but after further evaluation, it was determined that two more weeks needed to be added to the curriculum.

“We just didn’t have enough time to get them trained during the original timeframe,” Ryle said. “This extra training is necessary to enhance those basic medical skills even more.”

Inside of a lecture classroom in the basement of the combat medic school, Sen. Airman Phillip Bordé teaches a note-taking class to a roomful of students.

“I noticed a need for the students to have good note-taking abilities,” said Bordé, who’s deployed from the 42nd Medical Operations Squadron in Maxwell Air Force Base, Ala. “This class should also improve their study skills.” the EMT with two years of outpatient clinic experience said.

Soon after the class ended, Master Sgt. Sherri Tarun, a medical mentor, addressed the students. “After these eight weeks, you’ll be disciplined combat medics ready for war,” she said.

Once the students graduate, they receive sustainment training in the field, Tarun, who’s deployed from the 375th Aeromedical Squadron in Scott AFB, Ill., added.

“It’s great for the students to see us working with the ANA instructors side by side,” Sergeant Tarun said.

One of the ANA instructors is a four-year member of the medical corps. He enjoys working with his American counterparts.

“We’ve learned so much from the American instructors,” ANA Master Sgt. Mohammad Sohaib said. “They’ve guided and helped us in teaching the students. That help allows us to produce the best leaders from this course.”

Sohaib said the students receive classroom lecture during the morning hours and in the afternoon perform hands-on-training in the field.

In the afternoon, the students walked several cement steps toward a rocky knoll. Scattered rocks dominated the hill’s walking path while tall trees dotted the rest of the site.

The students were separated into five groups.

Bordé approached his group, removed his desert camouflage uniform top and wrapped a blood pressure meter around his arm.

The students then took turns with the meter to monitor their systolic blood pressure and stethoscope to hear each other’s pulses.

In another group, Army Master Sgt. Craig Abrom, NCOIC of the combat medic course, took advantage of — what he calls — “opportunity training.”

“I enjoy this type of training because I can quiz and ask questions,” the 22-year Soldier said. “It reinforces what the students have just learned.”

Abrom enforces communication within the students’ learning. He asked the shy students questions so they can become more vocal and comfortable with the material.

“I really enjoy working with these young soldiers, “he said. “I get a kick out of seeing the light bulb come up above their heads. We’re really making a difference with them.”

Two of those students were Mohammad Haleem and Mohammad Sadiq. Their first name wasn’t the only thing they shared.

“We really like the course,” they said. “The medical teachings are well done, and we enjoy learning from the ANA and American instructors, too.”

ANA student Sadiq seemed to grasp the course material. “This course makes sense to me, and I understand it well,” he confidently said.

Abrom noted the students’ gradual improvement and progression.

“The quality of the medics’ knowledge has vastly improved,” he said.