What Kind of Fruit is That?

Do you know what kind of fruit is that green funny looking thing right next to the yellow funny looking thing? I can guarantee that at 50% of the population will not be able to spell out the name of those fruits. Is that Papaya? It is really good to be able to take those kind of fruits out of the chow hall as I love fruits very much so. Life over here is getting better. The security level is very good, and the stress level from the Soldiers are greatly reduced due to less time on route because the bad guys are giving up and discouraged. The bad guys still out there, but the Iraqi citizens are getting smarter and they decided not to host the terrorists and the terrorists has nowhere to go but out of the country. The Iraqi citizens are slowly getting back to normality.

From My Wife

Baby!

Rejoicing in hope; patient in tribulation; continuing instant in Prayer
Romans 12:12

hihi, I like and learn a lot from Roman 12:12

this is the word I think God wants you to know:

Have not I commanded thee? Be strong and of a good courage;
be not afraid neither be thou dismayed: For the LORD thy God is with thee withersoever thou goest (Joshue 1:9)

Baby happy and enjoy
I love you
Your WIFE

Specialist Caprio's Reenlistment Ceremony

Today, the Platoon conducted the Reenlistment Ceremony for SPC Caprio, Alex on top of the platoon's beloved vehicle. The buffalo. The event was really good and emotional. and we would like to congratulate SPC Caprio with his reviewed dedication to the Country and to the Army by his continuous selfless service. On the other hand, today is the first mission for SSG Moran and SGT McKoy in a long time. It is good to have them back for a while. Talking about SSG Moran and SGT Mckoy, I will have another topic another day. But as of now, life is pretty good in Iraq.

There Is A Time For Everything

UNCLASSIFIED

1 For everything there is a fixed time, and a time for every business
under the sun.
2 A time for birth and a time for death; a time for planting and a time
for uprooting;

3 A time to put to death and a time to make well; a time for pulling
down and a time for building up;

4 A time for weeping and a time for laughing; a time for sorrow and a
time for dancing;

5 A time to take stones away and a time to get stones together; a time
for kissing and a time to keep from kissing;

6 A time for search and a time for loss; a time to keep and a time to
give away;

7 A time for undoing and a time for stitching; a time for keeping quiet
and a time for talk;

8 A time for love and a time for hate; a time for war and a time for
peace.

9 What profit has the worker in the work which he does?

10 I saw the work which God has put on the sons of man.

11 He has made everything right in its time; but he has made their
hearts without knowledge, so that man is unable to see the works of God,
from the first to the last.

12 I am certain that there is nothing better for a man than to be glad,
and to do good while life is in him.
13 And for every man to take food and drink, and have joy in all his
work, is a reward from God.
14 I am certain that whatever God does will be forever. No addition may
be made to it, nothing may be taken from it; and God has done it so that
man may be in fear before him. 15 Whatever is has been before, and what
is to be is now; because God makes search for the things which are past.

Ecclesiastes 3:1-15

Last Blog

I must say that this blog is getting lame as there are really not too much good pictures nor good stories in a while. It all started with my R&R leave and no more laptop nor private internet connection and also the unmotivated excuses not wanting to write up something good. The platoon is doing quite well and everybody seems to get a long with one another and taking care of fellow Soldiers.

As the days pass by and as you know, it is already October 2008. There are only a few short months left (something like 100 days), then we all coming back. We do not want to think about that but it is actually quite exciting to be able to see clearly that the deployment is wrapping up.

This is my last blog that is dedicated to the families of our Soldiers, and I thank you very much for your support in the last few months. I will continue to update the blog, but it is only for my personal perspective about the first year of work for me. What have I learned while being in Iraq and what not.

It is not 2:00 in the morning, right after a long mission, I decided to get to the MWR (moral welfare recreational) center, use the computer, and type up a few words before getting back to the crack house, take a nap, and be ready early in the morning for another mission.

Not only have I need to motivate myself. Telling myself that everything is going to be okay, but I also need to motivate the Soldiers, telling them that they are doing a great work for the United States, for the U.S army and for the Iraqi people. I drill these concept to the Soldiers of 3rd Platoon everyday, but it really is a hard sell.
It is a really hard sell. But I hope there will be one buyer, all I need is one buyer and I accomplish my mission.

To think about this, it is very sad for me, I seem to loose my hope as the days are eating up so quickly that I hardly recognize a passing week has gone by already.

Iraqi children hope for normal school year

BAGHDAD - Boys and girls in navy blue and white uniforms giggled and held hands Sunday as they filed into dusty and often rundown classrooms for the first day of school in Iraq.

Parents and their children were hopeful that recent security gains would allow them to focus on studies after years of violence that has forced education to the sidelines.

"I'm happy that classes are starting today and pray to God that everything will be fine this year," said 10-year-old Haider Mustafa, wearing a backpack as his dad dropped him off at a school in Baghdad's mainly Shiite neighborhood of Karradah. "I hope that we have security this year that will let us study normally."

Not everybody was ready to start school. Many parents decided to wait to send their children until after the Islamic fasting month of Ramadan, which ends in early October.

Critics said the Education Ministry's decision not to wait until after Ramadan to launch the academic year imposed unnecessary hardship on the children who were trying to fast as temperatures top 100 degrees Fahrenheit.

"The time is not really right for classes. It is still Ramadan and the weather is still hot," said Abbas al-Saadi, an assistant headmaster of a school in the eastern Baghdad neighborhood of Amin.

The Iraqi education system has been devastated by attacks and fighting between U.S.-led forces and Shiite and Sunni militants since the U.S.-led war began in 2003.

Hundreds of professors and teachers were killed or fled the country, and Iraqis were afraid to send children to school amid rampant kidnappings as retaliatory sectarian violence pushed the country to the brink of civil war.

Militants were accused of hiding weapons caches in schools and many were targeted in U.S.-Iraqi military offensives against Shiite militias late last year, cutting the school year short in parts of the city, especially Sadr City.

Despite continued attacks, Abdullah Omar Mohammed was ready for a fresh start as he took his 7-year-old son Abdullah Omar to school in the former Sunni insurgent stronghold of Azamiyah.

He brought his family back from refuge in neighboring Jordan after violence dropped dramatically in the northern Baghdad neighborhood when local tribal leaders formed a U.S.-allied group to fight al-Qaida in Iraq.

"We left for Jordan when security deteriorated in the area, but we came back in December after we heard about the improvements," he said. "We hope this year will be better on the security level. We hope no explosions take place."

His son stood next to him, dressed in the mandatory white shirt and navy blue trousers and holding a bag full of new books and supplies.

The Education Ministry said more than 6 million students started school nationwide. Schools opened in the semiautonomous Kurdish region earlier this week with an estimated more than 1.2 million students in attendance.

The headmistress of the Thabat girls' school in Baghdad's Shiite enclave of Sadr City said only 150 of 450 pupils arrived but she believed more would come after Ramadan.

Hana Abdul-Jabbar said improved security had created a new problem.

"We expect that more families will be willing to send their children to the school. Thus, we think this year, we will need more classrooms," she said. "We have already sent a request to the Education Ministry regarding this."

Eleven-year-old Israa Naji greeted friends with glee as they lined up in the school's courtyard, wearing headscarves along with blue jumpers over white shirts.

"I am happy to return to school and I'm less afraid of the violence," the sixth-grader said as she sat at her desk. "I hope to receive books and stationery in the coming few days in order to start the studying."

By KIM GAMEL
Associated Press
Sun Sep 21

OLD PICTURES

Hanging out in the day room

ready for a night mission


Band of Brothers



This is our RG-33 (The Sandy School Bus)

Prison Cell

"SPC Caprio"

SGT Port enjoys the ice cream on a Sunny Day



Hello there


How many people inside the car?



SSG Wilhelm

Deliberate Culvert Reconnaissance

Yemeni 10-year-old divorcee Nujood Ali goes back to school

Ali, who became an international celebrity after refusing to accept her marriage to a man three times her age and winning a divorce, is now back to a semblance of a normal life in Sana.

SANA, YEMEN — Still groggy, the schoolgirl brushed her hair, struggled to pull on her socks and snuggled into her school uniform: a green gown and a white head scarf.

By the time she gathered up her books and strapped on her backpack she was smiling and enthusiastic, her nervousness eclipsed by anticipation of the first day of class.

Like children across the world, 10-year-old Nujood Ali went back to school this month after a lengthy break. But Nujood hadn't been lazing about or playing hide-and-seek with her friends during the summer.

Instead, after she was pulled out of the second grade by her father earlier this year, she was married off to a man three times her age, who beat her and sexually abused her.

For many girls in this traditional society, where tribal custom and conservative interpretations of Islam dominate, that would have been the end of the story. But Nujood was outraged. She gathered up her courage and on the advice of an aunt went to court in April. She got the help of a lawyer and filed for divorce.

A judge quickly granted it.

And on Tuesday morning, the divorcee, possibly the world's youngest, once again became a schoolgirl.

"I'm very happy to be going back to school," she said, waiting in her ramshackle home for her younger sister Haifa to get ready. "I'm going to study Arabic, the Koran, mathematics and drawing. I will do that with my classmates and I will definitely make friends there."

Nujood's unusual story of rebellion made her an international celebrity. Since The Times wrote of her in June, CNN, Elle magazine and other international media have come to this mountaintop capital to chronicle her tale.

Hordes of nonprofit organizations offered to help her get back to school, some even willing to foot the bill to send her abroad or to a fancy private academy, though they ignored Haifa, Nujood's little sister and best friend.

In the end, Nujood opted for a small, government-run public school relatively close to her home. She would begin where she left off, starting the second grade again.

Even then, it wasn't easy. One teacher said she worried that Nujood might disturb other students by talking about her sexual experiences.

The night before she went to school, Nujood said she dreamed of notebooks, drawings and new friends.

"When I left school, I learned how to count from one to 100," she said. "Now, I am going to learn how to count until a million."

Nujood said she wanted to study hard, to be able to attend university and become a lawyer like Shada Nasser, the well-known Yemeni human rights advocate who helped her get her divorce.

The girl's experience, and her ambition, have even served as an inspiration to her parents, uneducated rural people who moved to the capital's outskirts a few years ago and say they married her off to protect her from the dangers of the city.

"We were never asked if we wanted to go to school when we were children," said her father, Ali Mohammed Ahdal, who has two wives and 16 children.

"If we had a choice, we would have loved to study like Nujood."

On Tuesday morning, Nujood and Haifa climbed into a yellow taxi paid for by an Italian aid group and drove through the capital's smog-choked streets, passing vendors of the mildly narcotic khat leaves and the occasional shepherd.

Outside the schoolhouse, Nasser stood waiting, eager to share a day she had anticipated. "I can't believe we finally made it," said the attorney, who agreed to drop the rest of her caseload to take up Nujood's cause after the girl showed up alone in a Sana courthouse in April.

Nujood and Nasser were welcomed by Njala Matri, the principal of the school in Rawdha, a lower-middle-class neighborhood along the road to the city's international airport.

"You are welcome here. You can feel at home," she said, smiling at Nujood.

Only about half of Yemeni girls attend primary school. Last year, one of the school's 1,200 girls, a 13-year-old, dropped out to marry, though the legal age of consent is 15. "Now, she's a mother," Matri said in dismay.

Women's rights activists say child marriage is part of a vicious circle. Girls drop out of school and bear too many children, contributing to Yemen's high female illiteracy and exploding birth rate.

But on Tuesday, Nujood stepped through the school's gates into a vast courtyard, disappearing into a swarm of noisy classmates. Some paid her no mind, while others approached the girl who had become a local and international media star.

"I am so excited," she said, playing nervously with her hands.

A bell sounded and the students quieted down, forming lines for roll call before shuffling into classrooms of about 50 students each.

Nujood took a seat in the third row, neither at the front nor the back of the classroom.

The teacher, dressed in an all-covering black abaya, hushed the students and began the day's lesson by asking them to recite the national anthem as well as passages from the Koran.

Small hands shot into the air.

"Who can recite the Surat al-Hamd?" the teacher asked, referring to the first chapter of the Koran.

She saw Nujood's hand, and called her name.

"Nujood?" she said.

Nujood stood up and began, ending with: "Show us the straight path. The path of those whom You have favored. Not the path of those who earn Your anger nor of those who go astray."

"May God bless you," said the teacher.

"Let's give her a round of applause."

The others clapped as Nujood sat down, a little girl once again.

By Delphine Minoui and Borzou Daragahi
Los Angeles Times

September 20, 2008

Sheiks turn to radio to get their message across

Time has come for Iraqi government to take over, they tell Mada’in listeners

JISR DIYALA, Iraq–— Mohammad Hussein Hamad Jabouri and Sadek Ibrahim Al Koreshi sit in a small office on this day, a Wednesday.

Pirated music CDs line the walls — mostly Arabic music, accompanied by a few American soundtracks. There’s a sound board and a pair of computers on a small desk. Above the equipment, a sticker reads "107.1 Mada’in Voice." Soft music comes on a nearby stereo with a soothing Arabic voice. The sheiks adjust the microphone and get ready.

It’s time to go on the air.

With security in the Mada’in region largely under control, coalition forces are now fighting an information battle to win over a population still frustrated by slow progress in the area.

Water is a perennial problem. Power has dropped off in many neighborhoods. Electricity cuts out twice while the sheiks are on air, as if to underscore the point. Wild rumors fly through the communities to explain these difficulties, and many of them blame American forces and their Iraqi allies.

The two sheiks are on the radio to dispel those types of rumors, said Capt. Russ Wagner, commander of Company B, 1st Battalion, 6th Infantry Regiment. Although both are strong coalition partners, their position as tribal leaders, separate from the established government, could give them cachet American officers wouldn’t have with disgruntled Iraqis.

The questions start off generally enough. Matham Saheb, the radio station manager, asks Jabouri and Koreshi to talk a little about what they’re doing in their areas, Zahara and Warhiyah respectively. They discuss two new bridges and how they’re helping families returning home after fleeing heavy fighting earlier in the war.

Saheb then moves to more specific questions, although they’re still mostly slanted in favor of the coalition. This is an Iraqi government radio station, after all, and some "Mada’in Voice" employees actually fall under the American brigade information officer for the area.

"What do you think about the outlaws when they attack your checkpoints?" Saheb asks. "How can you cooperate with the Iraqi National Police and Iraqi police? Is it a good thing or bad thing?"

Wagner sits hunched in a nearby corner with his interpreter whispering a translation into his ear. He wants to ensure the sheiks make the right points without speculating about problems beyond their expertise.

He need not have worried. The men stick right down the center of the coalition’s party line.

Jabouri, in particular, echoes the prevailing American opinion that it’s time coalition forces scale back their assistance and force the Iraqi government to take over.

"We don’t need to depend on the coalition forces every time," he tells listeners. "Because every time they say, ‘It is your government. They [Iraqi government officials] need to do their job.’ ""

Wagner is thrilled to hear the sheik say that without prompting.

"He’s perfect," Wagner whispers. "It’s nice to see that some of them get it."

The conversation ends — as almost all radio interviews do — with kind words all around.

"Thank you for coming here and letting people hear about what’s happening in Jisr Diyala,"" Saheb says.

"We say thank you, too, for letting us come and speak in the media," Jabouri answers.

The sheiks then get up and leave, pleased to have their message out.

By James Warden
Stars and Stripes
September 18, 2008

Lastest Soldiers' Pictures

SMOKEY DAY

Letters from al Qaeda leaders show Iraqi effort is in disarray

Al Qaeda's senior leadership has lost confidence in its commander in
Iraq and views the situation in the country as dire, according to a
series of letters intercepted by Multinational Forces Iraq earlier this
year.

The letters, which have been sent exclusively to The Long War Journal by
Multinational Forces Iraq, are a series of communications between Ayman
al Zawahiri, al Qaeda's second in command, Abu Ayyub al Masri, al Qaeda
in Iraq's leader, and Abu Omar al Baghdadi, the leader of al Qaeda's
Islamic State of Iraq. These letters were intercepted by Coalition
forces in Baghdad on April 24, 2008. One of the letters written by
Zawahiri is dated March 6, 2008.

Coalition forces found the letters on the corpse of a senior al Qaeda in
Iraq leader called Abu Nizar, whose real name is Ali Hamid Ardeny al
Essawi. He was killed when he was stopped at a Baghdad checkpoint and
pulled a gun. He later was identified by al Qaeda operatives in custody.

At the time of his death, Nizar served as al Qaeda in Iraq's information
minister. His responsibilities included running al Qaeda in Iraq's
propaganda network as well as the primary link to the regional terror
group and al Qaeda's senior leadership.

These communications with al Qaeda in Iraq leaders matched the US
military's view that the terror group suffered a major setback in Iraq.

"The letters confirmed our assessment that Al Qaeda has suffered
significant damage and serious reverses in Iraq, including widespread
rejection of [al Qaeda in Iraq's] indiscriminate violence, extremist
ideology, and oppressive practices," General David Petraeus, the
Commander of Multinational Forces Iraq told The Long War Journal. "Even
Zawahiri recognized that [al Qaeda in Iraq] has lost credibility in
Iraq."

Letters show al Qaeda in Iraq's leadership is in disarray

The series of letters highlights the divisions within al Qaeda in Iraq
and highlights al Qaeda's senior leadership's questions about the
leadership in Iraq. Al Masri is portrayed as an ineffective leader who
is refusing to respond to questions by al Qaeda's senior leadership
based in Pakistan. Leaders also criticize al Qaeda in Iraq's propaganda
campaign, stating the group has intentionally deceived followers by
releasing old footage and inflating enemy casualties.

A rash and incompetent leader

Much of the criticism of al Masri comes from a senior al Qaeda in Iraq
leader known as Abu Suleiman al Otaibi, a Saudi national who served as a
senior leader in al Qaeda's Islamic State of Iraq. Otaibi "migrated" to
Afghanistan at the end of 2007, where he then reported to al Qaeda's
leadership on al Masri's leadership flaws. Otaibi was killed by US
forces during a strike in Paktia province in the spring of 2008.

Otaibi's concerns about al Masri are expressed in Zawahiri's letter to
Baghdadi, where al Masri is portrayed as an ineffective, rash leader who
has cut himself off from al Qaeda in Iraq's field commanders. Al Masri,
according to Otaibi, only communicates through a tight circle of "very
leading personalities" in order to avoid being targeted by US forces. He
bristles at criticism of his actions or those of his appointed
commanders and refuses to accept bad news.

Otaibi's harshest criticism of al Masri is leveled at the latter's
decision to send a force of al Qaeda fighters into Ramadi in late June
2007. Al Masri is said to have ordered the al Qaeda fighters to attack
Ramadi "in a moment of anger against the brothers ... despite of the
great danger." At that time, the Awakening and Iraqi and US security
forces consolidated control over much of Anbar province, and al Qaeda's
network was seriously degraded in the region.

The Iraqi police in the Ramadi region received word of al Qaeda in
Iraq's plan, and US forces ambushed the group as it gathered in an
island on the Euphrates River. The engagement, called the Battle of
Donkey Island, resulted in at least 23 al Qaeda fighters killed and
dozens captured. Otaibi said only a handful of al Qaeda fighters escaped
from the battle.

Failure to communicate

In one letter from Zawahiri to al Masri, Zawahiri implores al Masri to
defend himself from criticism from other al Qaeda in Iraq's leadership.
Zawahiri then asks for a status update and chides al Masri for failing
to respond to prior inquiries.

"We also want to repeat to you our request to write to us full detailed
reports about your current conditions," Zawahiri stated. "Also, the
brothers request to know about your experiences ... and I have asked you
about this many times."

Al Qaeda in Iraq's propaganda failures

Otaibi savages al Qaeda in Iraq's propaganda efforts. The group is
guilty of recycling old footage from the archives of al Tawhid wal
Jihad, the predecessor of al Qaeda in Iraq, and rerunning the footage as
new attacks, Otaibi told Zawahiri.

"[The videos] are all old from the archives and were presented as if
they were new operations, and this is fraudulent and concealment of the
truth," Otaibi was paraphrased as saying in one of the letters. He also
states that the group stole video footage from other Sunni insurgent
groups and rebranded the content as their own.

Al Qaeda's handling of its propaganda has been a sore spot among jihadi
and insurgent groups for years, said Nick Grace, who tracks al Qaeda's
propaganda efforts.

"It's openly known on the al Qaeda forums that the Islamic State of Iraq
and al Furqan Media Center churn out archival footage, including
years-old attacks by Zarqawi's group al Tawhid wal Jihad," Grace said.
"They have also been caught posting videos of attacks conducted by other
groups in Iraq with their media logo. Sunni insurgents complained
publicly about al Furqan's methods in September 2007."

Al Qaeda in Iraq's propaganda output has been significantly degraded,
Grace said. Al Furqan released 111 videos in 2007, according to Grace.
Only 34 videos have been release since January 2008.

"On the brink of extinction"

Information from recently captured al Qaeda operatives supports the
letters from senior al Qaeda leaders that portray the jihad in Iraq
being in disarray, according to a Multinational Forces Iraq document
obtained by The Long War Journal.

An operative captured on Aug. 21 said the group has "lost the overall
fight" and suffers from "extreme financial difficulties." Al Qaeda in
Iraq and the Islamic State of Iraq do "not presently have any long time
plan and are only focused on short time fighting," the operative told US
forces.

Another operative, also captured on Aug. 21, said "foreign fighters in
Iraq are on the brink of extinction and the group's "biggest concern
right now is where to sleep at night without being arrested."

Recent estimates of foreign al Qaeda fighters entering Iraq backs up
this assertion. From February to June 2007, an estimated 80 to 110
foreign fighters were entering Iraq, according to Multinational Forces
Iraq. From January to August 2008, the estimate is 12 to 15 foreign
fighters entering the country. Senior al Qaeda leaders, including al
Masri, were reported to have fled Iraq to Pakistan's tribal areas
earlier this summer.

Al Qaeda in Iraq is also suffering from serious logistical and
recruiting problems. Communications have been disrupted and al Qaeda
cannot pay its fighters, other captured al Qaeda leaders said. In
Baghdad, al Qaeda lost 75 percent of its strength. In Mosul, al Qaeda
operations are assessed as being in a "state of irreparable
deterioration" and survival is the measure of success.

Throughout Iraq, recruiting is difficult if not impossible. "The main
problem is that al Qaeda in Iraq has lost support of the people in
Iraq," one captured operative said.

Petraeus advises caution

While the news of al Qaeda's setbacks in Iraq is encouraging, General
Petraeus advises caution in moving forward and is hesitant to declare
victory prematurely.

"No one here is doing victory dances in the end zone, as AQI [al Qaeda
in Iraq] remains lethal and dangerous," he told The Long War Journal.
"In fact, though there has been substantial progress, AQI has
demonstrated resilience, adaptability, and a continuing capability to
carry out barbaric attacks, albeit in much smaller numbers. So we and
our Iraqi partners clearly have much work still to do -- and that's what
we're endeavoring to do."

By Bill RoggioSeptember 11, 2008 (The Long War Journal)

Dusty Day

Country in need of doctors fights to get them back

Thousands fled Iraq amid attacks and kidnappings
By KARIN LAUB Associated Press

BAGHDAD — A kidney specialist who fled Iraq's bombings, kidnappings and sectarian killings 20 months ago has reported back to work at his Baghdad hospital — one of about 800 doctors who have returned over the summer.

Doctors are just a tiny group among Iraq's more than 4 million refugees and displaced, but Iraq's health minister says their homecoming sends a message to other emigres that security has "improved dramatically."

Still, the nephrologist, who came back from Britain in July, remains cautious. He mostly sleeps at his workplace, Baghdad's Surgical Hospital, because he fears being attacked en route to his hometown, an insurgent stronghold north of Baghdad. He refused to give his name for publication because he still fears being targeted.

For every doctor who comes back, nine stay away.

About 8,000 physicians, most of them specialists, have abandoned jobs at government health centers since the U.S.-led invasion in 2003, most seeking refuge abroad and a few hundred heading to the relative safety of Iraq's Kurdish region. Many ran from a violent campaign by extremists and crime gangs that targeted Iraq's elite.

Long waits for treatment
Their departure has further crippled a health care system plagued by corruption, mismanagement and a lack of equipment and drugs.

Health Minister Dr. Salih al-Hasnawi said getting doctors back is key to turning the situation around. Al-Hasnawi has floated the idea of turning Baghdad's Medical City, a five-hospital complex near the Tigris River, into a safety zone for visiting emigre specialists.

Al-Hasnawi promoted the plan in a meeting in Jordan with Iraqi doctors.

"Our proposal is that the military can provide security for this complex and we bring doctors from outside Iraq because it is a secure area," he said.

"This is a first step in bringing the doctors home," he added.

Iraq needs 100,000 doctors and has only 15,500, said Adel Muhsin, a top Health Ministry official. Egypt and Jordan, paupers compared to oil-rich Iraq, have almost four times as many — 24 per 10,000 residents to Iraq's six per 10,000.

Iraqi rheumatologist Dr. Muneeb al-Huwaish, who has settled in the Jordanian capital of Amman, said he likes the idea of the complex but that it's not enough to lure him back.

"When you leave the hospital and go home, you don't know what will happen to you," said the 61-year-old, who fled Iraq in late 2004 after being seized by a dozen gunmen outside his Baghdad clinic.

Al-Huwaish's experience isn't unusual.

Targeted by militants
In the past five years, Iraq's doctors, professionals and academics have been targeted by militants trying to widen chaos or by extortion gangs going after the wealthy. Since 2003, at least 620 medical professionals, including 134 doctors, have been killed and many more threatened.

"Simply, the goal is to destroy Iraq," Muhsin said.

Dr. Waleed Ibraheem, a top anesthesiologist also threatened by militants, tries to prevent further defections by appealing to team spirit. "Usually, I tell my staff those patients could be one of our family," he said. "So if I run away, you run away, everyone runs away, who will treat them?"

As an incentive, the government has sharply increased doctors' salaries. Specialists now make $2,000 to $3,000 a month, while under Saddam Hussein's rule, doctors would earn as little as $30.

But some doctors may be gone for good.

Dr. Zaid al-Sharbaqi, 29, a general practitioner who left Baghdad in 2006, has settled in faraway Stockholm, studying Swedish in preparation for the local medical exams.

"I'm dreaming to go back to Iraq, but I think the situation is still dangerous for all Iraqis," he said. "Every day, I become more and more tired when I listen to the news."

The road ahead for Trig

Ever since John McCain picked Sarah Palin to be his running mate, many have lavished praise on her decision not to have an abortion after she and her husband learned that their youngest child, Trig, would be born with Down syndrome. Do those telling Palin ''attagirl'' and ''way to go'' have any idea what challenges and struggles Trig's parents -- and all of us who care for children with special needs -- live with every day? Though everyone cheered the Palin family in Minnesota this week, will those people be there for that little boy and his family when their support is really needed?

How much better it would be if we could see past the hyper-toxic subject of abortion in this election and let Sarah and Todd Palin's decision spotlight a topic far from our national consciousness: the needs of Americans with disabilities. They are our country's most underserved, neglected and marginalized minority.

The parents of every special-needs child know that the Palins have a hard road ahead of them. The heartbreak of watching the isolation and loneliness Trig will face because he wants to be like other kids but isn't. The first time they find out he sits alone in the cafeteria and on the school bus. The realization that Trig understands why he doesn't get asked to the movies or birthday parties like other kids but doesn't know what he did wrong.

The toughest challenges that Sarah Palin will face as the Republicans' vice presidential nominee will probably look like a walk in the park when, as a mother, she sees how invisible her son is to people who look away or through him at the grocery store or the mall. She will be frustrated by doctors who dismiss her concerns as overreacting or have no answers for her questions. She will grow weary of the mountain of legal documents she and her husband must sign and the annual negotiations and pleas they must endure with a phalanx of teachers, therapists and administrators about what Trig's curriculum will be at school.

The Palins will come to understand with acute clarity that while the sky is the limit for their other children, for Trig the world will gradually become a smaller place. And it will be their life's work to make sure that world is safe and nurturing and fulfilling -- a place where strangers don't take advantage of him or abuse him when they can't be there to prevent it. They will be tested and angered and have their hearts broken. But the most challenging journey will be Trig's, as he struggles with the basic tasks most of us take for granted.

Still, there will be joy. The Palins will discover that this child will change their lives in ways they could never have imagined, and they will be richer for it. They will make friends and meet teachers, therapists and volunteers at Special Olympics and Best Buddies who will open their hearts and love Trig, treating him with a dignity he too rarely receives. Those good, compassionate people and the other special families who become part of their world will get them through tough times.

It is said that God chooses the families to whom he sends His special children. The Palins are indeed right that Trig is a blessing and a gift. But how much better would it be if, instead of praising Sarah Palin for not choosing abortion, we could focus instead on what this child, and all disabled Americans, need from us? If we could be there for the Palins on the journey they face as a family? Doing so would surely add to the diversity of an election year that has already shattered barriers of race and gender.

Ellen Crosby is a novelist who lives in Northern Virginia. She and her husband have an autistic son. This article first appeared in the Washington Post September 05