Election results in Iraq

I know the final votes have not been tallied yet but I am so happy over the participation rate during this election. The January, 2005 elections were hailed as a great success but surely this one will be recorded as one even better. My personal theory on why we ultimately will have a YES on the referendum is that the Sunni-Arabs were "allowed" to vote by their leaders this time. Back in January, many Sunni's were told not to vote and were harassed, threatened, and, in some cases, subject to physical violence if they did vote. I believe that many Sunni's did vote AND some of those that did vote actually voted YES instead of NO. So...over here I am very happy that so many participated in the election. I hope the result is a YES but even if it is a NO, that in itself is a victory for the Iraqis because they used the polling stations to effect change rather than using an AK-47 or an IED (Improved Explosive Device)...

I was interviewed

Hey folks

Just a quick note to say I was interviewed by my hometown newspaper. Here is the link to the website.

http://www.timesdispatch.com/servlet/Satellite?pagename=RTD/MGArticle/RTD_BasicArticle&c=MGArticle&cid=1031785412483

Let me know if there is any problem accessing this site. Thanks.

October is here - yeaaaaa

Hey folks: I have been having trouble posting pictures to the web site so I might have to go purely text-based from now on...The past few weeks have been quite busy for me. We have been doing our usual "outside the wire" missions, going to city neighborhoods and assessing the living conditions, taking pictures, chatting with the locals, etc...and of course handing out candy and beanie babies whenever we can. This past week I took some folks out to Lake Dokan in the northeastern part of Iraq and we actually got to swim in a huge lake. President Talabani (spelling?) has a house there - he is the President of Iraq. Anyway, we had a great time there - there was work involved but I try to have fun (in a safe way of course) while we are out sometimes. A couple of days ago we assessed a city sector/neighborhood and got to check out one of the city's oldest fortresses...apparently this historical landmark is at least 2,000 years old - that was fun.

I am so glad we are in October - another month"bites the dust".