U.S. Air Force Senior Airman Samantha Brunner helps rack a patient onto a C-17 Globemaster III aircraft at Joint Base Balad, Iraq, on Nov. 27, 2008. Brunner is an aerospace medical service journeyman with the 332nd Expeditionary Aerospace Medical Squadron and is deployed from the 911th Airlift Wing at Pittsburgh International Airport Air Reserve Station, Pa. DoD photo by Airman 1st Class Jason Epley, U.S. Air Force. (Released)From Commentary Magazine:
BAGHDAD – For the past two weeks I’ve been embedded with the United States Army in Baghdad, and I find myself unable to figure out what to make of this place. Baghdad, despite the remarkable success of the surge, is as mind-bogglingly run-down and dysfunctional as ever, even compared with other Arabic countries. Iraq is a dark place. At times it feels like a doomed country that has only been temporarily spared the reckoning that is coming. Other times it is possible to look past the grimness and see progress beyond the mere slackening off of violence and war. Is Iraq truly on the mend, or has a total breakdown been merely postponed? Opinions here among Americans and Iraqis are mixed, but nearly everyone seems to agree about one thing at least: terrorists and insurgents will respond with a surge of their own in the wake of the upcoming withdrawal of American forces.
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