I'll be on the Dennis Miller Show today at 12:34 PM Eastern. Live stream is here.

UPDATE: Recorded audio here.

The LA Times has published a piece that confirms something I reported on several weeks ago:

"Iraqis losing patience with militiamen"

It's encouraging to see current Iraqi attitudes about the Mahdi Army get more play in the mainstream press.

For reference, the piece I wrote is here:

"Iraqis begin to 'despise' the Mahdi Army in Baghdad's Rusafa district"

Cpl. Jeffrey B. Starr:

"I don't regret going, everybody dies but few get to do it for something as important as freedom. It may seem confusing why we are in Iraq, it's not to me. I'm here helping these people, so that they can live the way we live. Not have to worry about tyrants or vicious dictators. To do what they want with their lives. To me that is why I died. Others have died for my freedom, now this is my mark."

2nd Lt. Mark Daily:

"I joined the fight because it occurred to me that many modern day 'humanists' who claim to possess a genuine concern for human beings throughout the world are in fact quite content to allow their fellow 'global citizens' to suffer under the most hideous state apparatuses and conditions. Their excuses used to be my excuses."

1st Lt. Travis Manion:

"Travis spoke at length, easing the minds of many team members. He was very proud of being a warrior, and the warrior spirit. I remember him saying that it would dishonor a man as a warrior if you did not continue the fight, despite the pain and loss. We have turned back to his words to help us through this time."

Captain Dan Eggers:

"As my classmates and I endured our 'knob' year, we were constantly reminded of the recently graduated seniors, specifically Dan Eggers," Maxwell said. "Although I never met Dan, I felt like I knew him by the end of my first year. He was loved by his classmates and was a legend to cadets like myself who followed in his footsteps."

Ensign Billy Martin:

"Dearest,
...
At this point you realize that there is a lot more to flying than most people think and a thrill comes over you as you feel that you're a part of it. Just being upstairs, cruising around looking at the beautiful green patches that make up the earth and contrasting it with the sky of blue tinted with red and yellow where the sun peeps through clouds makes you feel, 'this is where I belong.'

I'd like instructing for a while, but when the months passed and I kept hearing of what our boys are doing over there, I know the urge would become so great to get out there with them and do some damage myself. I'd like being an instructor so we could be together and enjoy some of the happiness we've been waiting for. Then like any other American, I'd want to get out there and do my part. You understand how I feel, don't you hon?

When victory is ours then I'll be able to come home to my little wife whom I adore with all of my heart and try to give her all of the happiness she so richly deserves. I'll feel proud to know that I can see why millions of my fellows feel as I do; this is worth fighting for. It's worth more than just a life, for a nation to settle down from the turbulence incurred in the past years, so that girls and fellows may live as they should. May God be with all of them.

Guess I've said enough, so I'll end with my undying love for you dear. Good day until the morrow.

Love always,

Billy"

I'm scheduled to be on The World Tonight with Rob Breakenridge at 9:30 Eastern this evening. Live stream can be found here.

I'll be talking about Iraq on the John Batchelor Show tonight at 10:05 Eastern. The show is broadcast on the following stations, which have online listening streams:

KFI-AM 640 Los Angeles

WABC in New York (770 AM)

(Try the LA link first, the schedule indicates the NY broadcast might not be the live show)

A new slideshow featuring various pictures from my embed is up at the Long War Journal.

I've just gotten back to the States. Today I contributed to today's Covert Radio show at the Long War Journal. Roggio and I talk about the campaign against the Mahdi Army in Sadr City about a third of the way through, though I recommend listening to the whole thing.

My fourth item is up at the Long War Journal, a slideshow with an accompanying report.

A wide variety of vehicles enter Sadr City.

I finally made it into Sadr City. Gaining entrance has been difficult, because Army public affairs embedded me with a unit (3-89 Cav) that operates only up to the Shia district's southwestern border. Traveling around Iraq is not as easy as telling military convoys where you'd like to go, and you still can't catch a cab without the (increasingly remote) chance of winding up the lead in a jihadi snuff video. On Thursday, I fortunately caught a ride with a Military Police unit that had plans to liaise with their personnel manning the Sadr City Joint Security Station (JSS), an Iraqi Police station in the southern part of the district.

The southwestern edge of Sadr City is bordered by a major highway dubbed "Route Pluto" by the Americans. Streams of military vehicles periodically turn off of the wide thoroughfare and on to a dusty shoulder, passing staged stacks of concrete T-Walls used in the counterinsurgency barrier being constructed a few blocks north on Al Quds Street. As my convoy took this route and turned into Sadr City, we entered an area held by the 1st Squadron, 2nd Stryker Cavalry Regiment and the engineers attached to them. The space looked like a scaled down version of D-Day +2 in Normandy. Clouds of dust rolled over rows of Abrams tanks, MRAPS, Strykers, humvees and odd engineering vehicles entering the district. The stacatto thrum of Apache attack helicopters sounded overhead.

A short walk took me to an old school that serves as the headquarters for the Stryker Cav. The building buzzed with energy. Soldiers were entering and exiting in varying states of battle dress, hanging out, laying communications wire, shaving in a corner, typing on a laptop and carrying messages into a command center, where personnel ran an operation presumably taking place somewhere immediately north. Litters and stacks of medical supplies were prepped in a corner. A furry white and tan puppy wandered into the middle of the orderly commotion, and soldiers petted the dog as it ambled through the building.

A couple of loud, crackling booms echoed through the hallways. Some of the soldiers who were visiting the school jumped and prepared to leave "if that's incoming," while most of the Stryker Cav nonchalantly ignored it. The explosions turned out to be the "outgoing" impact of Hellfire missiles fired from the prowling Apaches. The munitions had landed near enough to closely resemble the sound of incoming mortars.

This Iraqi puppy was unfazed by the commotion.

Eventually we walked over to the Sadr City Joint Security Station (JSS), also known as JSS Al Tharwa. It's a bright blue police station housing a modest number of Iraqi cops and their American advisers. The mission of the cops at the JSS right now is merely "force protection" -- essentially showing up and manning bunkers and towers to defend the building from militia attack. As a war rages near and sometimes at it, the station is considered "unstable." Snipers are active in the area, some skilled and well-equipped enough that the soldiers casually refer to them as "Iranian" (this may or may not be accurate). And on average, the station is hit "once or twice a week ... usually with small arms fire," according to Staff Sergeant Joseph Houle, squad leader of the 3rd squad, 1-91 Military Police Company.

This instability was apparent on April 28th, when insurgents attacked the building with 8-12 rockets. Video of the event is astounding: the rockets successively pounded the side of the building, huge clouds of smoke and debris erupting at each impact. Horrified American onlookers at JSS Al Qanat across the street assumed that the toll in dead and wounded would be significant, but, miraculously, all of the American and Iraqi occupants survived with only a few minor injuries. The word "miracle" seemed appropriate as I examined the portion of the building that bore the attack.

Houle says that the Sadr City cops working at the station are "very friendly," but he doesn't know them particularly well. The American unit has been working at the JSS for only two weeks.

Some of the cops are "eager to learn" but many "won't say" where they live, added 1-91 MP Sergeant Travis Sand. He describes his unit's mission as "trying to build up the local area, to make a better workspace for [the Iraqi Police] and us."

The busy surrounding area is urban residential, with a few shops and other businesses. The streets have been closed to vehicle traffic, spurring interaction between walking citizens and patrolling American units.

"They seem interested to meet you, to get to know us," said Sand. "Not a lot of frowns or anything, a lot of smiles. When I talked to a few of the people, they want peace, and they are more glad we're here and that we're trying to work on a solution."

He said the locals studiously avoid mentioning the Mahdi Army, which continues to take heavy losses in daily conflict with US and Iraqi forces.

The Shia Mahdi militiamen are said to have a stronger instinct for self-preservation than their Sunni extremist equivalents in Al Qaeda, who tend to favor suicide attacks. But after reading engagement reports and witnessing the combat power arrayed against them, I wonder.

UPDATE: Or perhaps they're more realistic than I was beginning to assume ... but do note that the Sadrist politicians merely have titular control over all Mahdi Army footsoldiers. Some thugs will continue to fight to defend their criminal enterprises, and some true believers will ignore the agreement.

A mosque stands to the side of the Sadr City JSS.

My third piece is up at the Long War Journal.