Hometown Hero

Michael Baumgartner just ended a 13-month tour in Iraq as the deputy director of economics in the Office of Joint Strategic Planning and Assessment under U.S. Ambassador Ryan Crocker.

Michael's parents are Dee Baumgartner, a long time kindergarten teacher at Franklin Elementary, and Dave Baumgartner, a WSU Extension Service forester.

He visits a couple of times a year, especially to see the WSU Cougars play basketball.

There is a great column in the Boston Globe about Michael. This is my favorite quote from him:

Refighting the 2003 political battles does little to address the essential questions surrounding how we now get Iraq far enough down the path to stability so that we can withdraw. The 2003 issues are largely a distraction and have little to do with what our all-volunteer military and civilian force is doing to try and bring the Iraqi people peace.

Amen. Thanks for your service, Michael, and the truth.

Iraq-Pullman

There were a couple of stories in the Moscow-Pullman Daily News today about the Iraq War and its impact in Pullman.

In the first story, it was disclosed that the approximately 60 Pullman-based members of Detachment 2, Company B, 1-161st Infantry Battalion, 81st Brigade Combat Team (Heavy), Washington Army National Guard received their mobilization orders yesterday. After a stop at Camp McCoy in Wisconsin for training in August, they will be headed to Iraq once again this fall.

In the second story, it was reported that a group of five gathered at St. James Episcopal Church in Pullman last night for a vigil to mark the fifth anniversary of the Iraq War. This pathetically small number (for a college town) can perhaps be explained by a Gallup Poll that came out last Friday. The success of the surge has convinced a majority of Americans that victory is possible in Iraq and that U.S troops should not leave before the job is done.

65% of Americans feel the U.S. has an obligation to establish a reasonable level of security and stability in Iraq before withdrawing. That's exactly what our Pullman boys in the National Guard will be doing. 63% feel that it is likely al-Qaeda will use Iraq as a base for terrorist operations if the U.S. withdraws and 57% believe that even greater number of Iraqis will die if the U.S. withdraws. This despite the fact that 59% say of Americans think that involvement in Iraq was a mistake.

Not only is this bad news for the protesters at St. James, it's bad news for presidential candidate Barack Obama and his pledge to immediately withdraw U.S. troops from Iraq.

Beyond (Liberal) Borders

Note to Harry Reid: If you've lost Hollywood liberalati Angelina Jolie, you've lost the country.

Jolie, an ambassador for the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees, had an op-ed published in today's Washington Post stating that the surge has worked and that U.S. troops must stay in Iraq to help the millions of displaced persons.