Sunday, January 30, 2005
More on the Iraqi Elections
As I write, the polls are recently closed in Iraq. It was an amazing day. Early indications are a 72% turnout. What a blessing!
I wish I had time to explore it more thoroughly, but alas, efforts on the GodBlogCon Prayer Blog do not allow me time to do so. However, I am struck with the historical dance that democracy and Christianity have made together.
John 14:66
Jesus said to him, "I am the way, and the truth, and the life; no one comes to the Father, but through Me."
John 8:32
"...and you shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free."
One has wonder if more than the first non-Jewish Middle Eastern democracy is in the long-term future for Iraq?
I praise the Lord for the Iraqi people and how brave they are to show up in such number under such conditions. But more, I prasie God for the our soldiers and the work they have done to make this opportunity available to those brave, brave Iraqi people.
Some words from a friend on the scene. In an email I got just last night, in which he granted me permission to reproduce his emails here in the blog, he introduced himself...
"...my full name is LT Jared Leinart with 1st Platoon, Company A, 113th EN BN. The unit is from LaPorte Indiana, however I was born and raised in Northern Indianapolis and currently reside in Arcadia, IN, a small farm community about 20 miles north of Indianapolis. I am married to the most beautiful Christian woman (in my opinion of course) who has blessed me with two wonderful children (Vincent is 8 going on 15 and Hannah is 3 going on Miss Independent). I had just started working on my MDiv prior to being deployed and plan on returning to my studies when I return to the states. When I'm not in Iraq, I work full-time for the Indiana Army National Guard in Operations and Training. My platoon is currently stationed in Mosul, Iraq and have been conducting missions into downtown Mosul to provide barriers around polling sites for the elections. Last night, we removed any deserted vehicles around polling sites that could house Improvised Explosive Devices (IED's)."
In an email from last weekend, he described some of what he was doing in preparation for the election...
"I am here now trying to finish getting our vehicles fitted with the "up-armor". I will probably be flying back to Marez in the next couple days. The four guys from my platoon that are here with me will convoy out sometime next week when the vehicles are done.
In Marez [ed. downtown Mosul], my platoon will travel out with EOD (Explosives Ordanance Disposal) who are supossed to destroy enemy explosives, but since there are so many to destroy and so few EOD, we go out and destroy them. Out here, EOD has become "Engineer On Duty." The unit we are replacing was supossed to be here until after the elections (30 Jan) but they are already heading out the door. We do have a great deal of muscle with us to include a battalion of infantry and calvary. We also have field artillery and other units too.
Yesterday a squad from another engineer platoon got to go out on a mission conduction cordon and search of a small village north of Tel Afar (NW of Mosul). They had infantry air assault (drop from helicopters on ropes) into the town, Stryker vehicles with infantry and cav come rolling in, and apache attack helicopters flying overhead. The enginners went in and set up an EPW (Enemy Prisoner of War) holding area inside of a walled school. Friday is their version of our Sunday so no school was in session. The troops go in and search door to door for weapons and enemy. The had intelligence on one farmhouse as being an enemy hiding area so it was bombed."
Finally, in an email from the middle of this past week he write...
"We are really gearing up for the elections here in the Mosul area. We will be putting in barriers around multiple polling locations (both real and deceptive ones) in the next few days. The locals have been ordered to not drive their vehicles until after the elections, so this will reduce the threat of car bombs (Vehicle-borne Improvised Explosive Devices or VBIED in military speak). Then, we will provide security for our engineers with wreckers and remove any vehicles near the polling sites. So far we have only had to go through the city a few times and have only had a few "pop shots" fired in our general direction. You can hear the rifle go off and see it hit a building way above you or off in the distance. Please do not be alarmed as these shots have been WAY OFF. The intelligence we get is that many Iraqis will actually close their eyes when they go to fire their weapons and pray t o Allah. Lucky for us, Allah doesn't seem to be interested in the trajectory of their rounds. We responded to an IED call the other day but we were pretty sure it wasn't going to blow because it was near a playground and kids were still playing in it. It's when there are usually a lot of people and suddenly they are all gone is when you run into problems."
Somehow, when you read it firsthand like this it drives home the situation our men and women, and the FREE, civilized citizens of Iraq are in. I pray and I pray -- I urge you to as well.
I wish I had time to explore it more thoroughly, but alas, efforts on the GodBlogCon Prayer Blog do not allow me time to do so. However, I am struck with the historical dance that democracy and Christianity have made together.
John 14:66
Jesus said to him, "I am the way, and the truth, and the life; no one comes to the Father, but through Me."
John 8:32
"...and you shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free."
One has wonder if more than the first non-Jewish Middle Eastern democracy is in the long-term future for Iraq?
I praise the Lord for the Iraqi people and how brave they are to show up in such number under such conditions. But more, I prasie God for the our soldiers and the work they have done to make this opportunity available to those brave, brave Iraqi people.
Some words from a friend on the scene. In an email I got just last night, in which he granted me permission to reproduce his emails here in the blog, he introduced himself...
"...my full name is LT Jared Leinart with 1st Platoon, Company A, 113th EN BN. The unit is from LaPorte Indiana, however I was born and raised in Northern Indianapolis and currently reside in Arcadia, IN, a small farm community about 20 miles north of Indianapolis. I am married to the most beautiful Christian woman (in my opinion of course) who has blessed me with two wonderful children (Vincent is 8 going on 15 and Hannah is 3 going on Miss Independent). I had just started working on my MDiv prior to being deployed and plan on returning to my studies when I return to the states. When I'm not in Iraq, I work full-time for the Indiana Army National Guard in Operations and Training. My platoon is currently stationed in Mosul, Iraq and have been conducting missions into downtown Mosul to provide barriers around polling sites for the elections. Last night, we removed any deserted vehicles around polling sites that could house Improvised Explosive Devices (IED's)."
In an email from last weekend, he described some of what he was doing in preparation for the election...
"I am here now trying to finish getting our vehicles fitted with the "up-armor". I will probably be flying back to Marez in the next couple days. The four guys from my platoon that are here with me will convoy out sometime next week when the vehicles are done.
In Marez [ed. downtown Mosul], my platoon will travel out with EOD (Explosives Ordanance Disposal) who are supossed to destroy enemy explosives, but since there are so many to destroy and so few EOD, we go out and destroy them. Out here, EOD has become "Engineer On Duty." The unit we are replacing was supossed to be here until after the elections (30 Jan) but they are already heading out the door. We do have a great deal of muscle with us to include a battalion of infantry and calvary. We also have field artillery and other units too.
Yesterday a squad from another engineer platoon got to go out on a mission conduction cordon and search of a small village north of Tel Afar (NW of Mosul). They had infantry air assault (drop from helicopters on ropes) into the town, Stryker vehicles with infantry and cav come rolling in, and apache attack helicopters flying overhead. The enginners went in and set up an EPW (Enemy Prisoner of War) holding area inside of a walled school. Friday is their version of our Sunday so no school was in session. The troops go in and search door to door for weapons and enemy. The had intelligence on one farmhouse as being an enemy hiding area so it was bombed."
Finally, in an email from the middle of this past week he write...
"We are really gearing up for the elections here in the Mosul area. We will be putting in barriers around multiple polling locations (both real and deceptive ones) in the next few days. The locals have been ordered to not drive their vehicles until after the elections, so this will reduce the threat of car bombs (Vehicle-borne Improvised Explosive Devices or VBIED in military speak). Then, we will provide security for our engineers with wreckers and remove any vehicles near the polling sites. So far we have only had to go through the city a few times and have only had a few "pop shots" fired in our general direction. You can hear the rifle go off and see it hit a building way above you or off in the distance. Please do not be alarmed as these shots have been WAY OFF. The intelligence we get is that many Iraqis will actually close their eyes when they go to fire their weapons and pray t o Allah. Lucky for us, Allah doesn't seem to be interested in the trajectory of their rounds. We responded to an IED call the other day but we were pretty sure it wasn't going to blow because it was near a playground and kids were still playing in it. It's when there are usually a lot of people and suddenly they are all gone is when you run into problems."
Somehow, when you read it firsthand like this it drives home the situation our men and women, and the FREE, civilized citizens of Iraq are in. I pray and I pray -- I urge you to as well.
