Huckleberries: Major offers first-hand description of Iraq progress

In Huckleberries Online Monday, I posted a riveting AP photo of 7-year-old Jordan Markham praying during a deployment service for the Stryker Brigade/Fort Lewis, Wash. The photo attracted the usual debate about the war effort until a few minutes before midnight, when Jordan’s father, battalion executive officer Maj. Keith Markham, chimed in. He served in the first Gulf War and has been deployed in Iraq twice. Maj. Markham commented (full post can be found this morning at Huckleberries Online):

“This will be my third trip to Iraq, I will miss my four children (Jordan is my oldest), but I will go a fourth time if necessary because … I know what we are doing and why we are doing it. … As a soldier I get so frustrated with the media because it seems like they are so blinded by their hatred of the president that if we trotted out a pony they would film the poop. If you want to get a good picture of Iraq, you … have to read the news the way people used to read it in the Soviet Union, by looking at what is not being said. You used to read a lot about how bad the road from the Green Zone to the airport was. (You) haven’t heard about it in a long time because it is safe. When was the last time you read about combat in Mosul? We have pulled most of the U.S. forces from the area because it is pretty secure. When was the last time you read about major combat in Al Anbar Province? … The Sunni sheiks have grown tired of the insurgents and have ordered their men to join the police and military.”

Then, Maj. Markham details what’s at stake: “If we win this war we will help create a democratic state in an area that has never known personal freedoms. This will in turn put pressure on the dictatorships around it to grant freedom to their people. Most of the men recruited by our enemy come from oppressive countries where they are taught one religious view. … A free Iraq would be a huge defeat for our enemies and they know it. That is why they are throwing so much of their effort into destroying the fledgling democracy. If we lose, we will see a state dominated by religious extremism and violence. We are winning and can win. We only need two things from you, support and time.”

Agree or disagree with the major, one thing’s certain: America is lucky to have him on our side.