Chrenkoff

What the media portray is true: explosions, killings, attacks. But if you see how much order, discipline, transport, displacements, and work have improved, there is a change for the better compared to one or two years ago. Now people understand there is a government, the structure of a new state. Thousands and thousands of allied and Iraqi soldiers are present. There is a constitution which is being drawn up, laws are being enacted.

The presence of authority is recognised. This was not the case before. And Al-Qaeda integralists and terrorists coming from abroad seek to penetrate Iraq precisely to destroy the beginnings of this social organization.

Some 300 leaders of Iraq's alienated Sunni Arab former elite called Thursday [14 July] for participation in the next elections, due in December, after a boycott of January polls left the community largely unrepresented in parliament.

"I'm calling on my brothers ... to participate in the political process," Adnan al-Dulaimi, spokesman for the General Conference of Sunnis, told participants at a Baghdad meeting.

His comments were echoed by Sheikh Ibrahim al-Nima, a leading Sunni cleric from the main northern city of Mosul.

"We can blame ourselves from staying away at the last elections. It was a big mistake," he said.

"Participating (in the next elections) means we shall exist. If we don't participate there will be no existence for us."

A leader of the hardline Salafist movement, Sheikh Zakaria Mohi Issa al-Timimi, also endorsed taking part.

"We will be very active in our participation in the elections in order to mitigate the damage inflicted on Sunnis today," he said.

Mr. Rae said that, in this environment of continuous violence, carnage and horror, the determination of the Iraqis to bring democracy to their country is overwhelmingly impressive. "You come away from it all with tremendous admiration for the courage of the people who are sticking at it and moving forward, going forward, and dealing with some very difficult issues.

"They are sophisticated, professional, political people who are picking up the pieces at the end of a dictatorship, and they're doing it in the most difficult of circumstances -- this terrible attack on the civilian population."

- Provision of European experts to work with the Constitutional Committee of the Iraqi Transitional National Assembly and with other institutions and actors in Iraq

- Media and Public Information

- Civic education and promotion of public debate, and participation in the referendum

USAID is... helping the Iraqi National Assembly’s (INA’s) Constitutional Committee adopt systems to enable public input on the constitution. In June, a USAID-sponsored Civil Society team and a few Iraqi NGOs participating in the Constitutional Dialogue Program met with the Constitution Committee’s Outreach Unit to design a work plan to receive public input...

USAID provided training to 42 INA members on the legislative drafting process. Training topics included creating and introducing a bill; its reading stages; the supporting role played by the legal staff; the form and content of a law; legislative reviews; the role and use of amendments; and reasons why public input is important to the overall legislative process.

USAID also provided training to 37 INA members on advocacy and lobbying for legislators working in a democratic system.

A series of workshops have been held in Iraqi ministries for female employees, aimed at raising awareness of the new constitution, so that they are able to make an informed choice when voting on it in October.

"The workshops aim to help women understand how the drafting of the constitution will take place, explaining the basic fundamental principles: human rights, women's rights, federalism and legislation," director of the ICWRE, Jennan Mubarak, said.

The workshops have been organised by local NGOs, the Iraqi Centre for Women's Rehabilitation and Employment (ICWRE) and the Civil Alliance For Free Elections (CVAFE).

[Salim Al-Musilmawi, governor of the province of Babil] is part of a five-member Iraqi delegation visiting Utah for five days. Aimed at teaching them how democracy works on the local level, it is the first exchange of Iraqi and U.S. state and municipal officials.

South Jordan Councilwoman Leona Winger and Mayor W. Kent Money showed the Iraqis how public works and safety, planning and zoning and other aspects of local government operate.

Money described touring the South Jordan City Council chambers with the Iraqis. He said they were surprised to learn that the most important people don't sit at the elected officials' table. Instead, the most important people are the citizens who sit in the audience.

"That is a new concept to them," the mayor said.

Money credited Winger with the idea of inviting the Iraqi delegation to visit South Jordan. Winger founded the nonprofit organization, New Hope Humanitarian, this month. Its goal is to establish a long-term relationship with the Iraqi people that will promote democracy, economic development and women's rights, among other things.

£6.25 million [$11.3 million] Political Participation Fund - Through the PPF, money has been targeted at increasing women's participation in the political process, particularly in the run up to the recent elections. Several women's NGOs have received funds to run workshops, provide training, conduct media campaigns encouraging women to vote, and carry out other work to promote political awareness.

£5 million [$8.7 million] Civil Society Fund - DFID is funding links between international and Iraqi women's organisations to strengthen the ability of local groups' to address the needs of Iraqi women. International NGOs have conducted rights awareness and leadership training, fostered links between women's groups, and organised an international NGO conference on women and foreign exchanges for Iraqi women leaders.

With some help from U.S. nonprofits, Iraqi journalists are planning what they say will be their country’s first independent, national news agency.

The English name of the agency will be the National Iraq News Agency, or NINA. To get the agency up and running, the journalists are getting training and financial support from U.S.-based nonprofits funded by the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID).

Nicole Chartrand-Tresch, a technical officer for USAID in Iraq, told IJNet that the goal of the support is to help the agency – which would be a commercial enterprise independent of the government – become self-sufficient.

The America’s Development Foundation (ADF) is overseeing the project as part of its Iraq Civil Society and Media Support Program. The International Research and Exchange Board (IREX) is providing the training and consultation to the journalists. Joachim Raffelberg of IREX is in Baghdad overseeing the media component of the civil society program, Chartrand-Tresch said.

Kadhim Al-Rikabi, the program’s media manager, told the London-based Arabic newspaper Asharq Alawsat that the journalists are being trained in preparation for the agency’s launch.

Iraqi journalists are getting a chance to show their résumés around.

The charitable foundation of the Reuters news agency plans to announce this week that it is turning a grass-roots Iraqi news Web site into the country's first independent commercial news service.

The Web site, Aswat al-Iraq, or Voices of Iraq, has relied on 30 freelance workers, help from three independent Iraqi newspapers and feeds from the Reuters Arabic-language service, to publish hundreds of articles a month in Iraq.

Now the site, www.aswataliraq.info, will become a full-fledged news wire, managed and staffed by Iraqi journalists in Baghdad and operated independently of Reuters. It will use $800,000 from the United Nations to create a newsroom and to base reporters in each Iraqi province. When the service goes live in a few months, it will feed breaking news to both Iraqi and foreign news outlets.

Driven away by bombs, dispirited by shelves emptied by looters, visitors to the public library in Baghdad's Khadamiya district are now starting to return.

There's still work to be done. Stolen books and looted furniture must be replaced. But seeing the return of readers is inspiring enough for Alya Abdul Hussein, a librarian here for 20 years.

"This library, like any public facility in Iraq, suffered," Hussein says.

The Khadamiya Library is one of eight public libraries open in Baghdad, down from 19 operating before the start of the war more than two years ago. Fighting, looters and neglect closed most of the others.

Muhammed Qassim, a Ministry of Municipalities and Public Works official, says the government is trying to reopen more libraries with grant money from the United States and other countries.

More than 15,000 soccer fans braved the bloody mayhem caused by 10 suicide bombers across Baghdad on Friday to see the air force team al-Quwa Jawiya crowned Iraq's first champions since the fall of Saddam Hussein.

Many drove half the length of a nation ravaged by war to reach the capital's Shaab national stadium from Basra, only to see their port authority side Al-Meena lose to two second half goals.

For organisers of a tournament that pitted teams from rebel strongholds like Ramadi and Samarra against powerful clubs from the capital once favoured by Saddam's elite, the fact that it went ahead at all for the first time since the U.S. invasion of 2003 was a triumph.

"A lot of people didn't think we'd be able to stage a championship at all," said Hussein Sayeed, chairman of the Iraqi soccer federation and a former captain of the national team.

Recent foreign aid and trade agreements provide hope that Iraq's economy, plagued by years of sanctions and violence, is on the road to recovery. Despite almost daily news of grisly atrocities, there have been a number of encouraging signs recently for Iraq's emerging economy.

GDP growth was estimated at 54 percent in 2004. This year is also expected to be strong, with GDP growth predicted at 34 percent.

Iraq's "New Dinar" currency, introduced in 2003, has been performing strongly, appreciating by about 25 percent against the dollar in the past two years.

As the fledgling government works toward drafting a constitution, a formal request for WTO membership is also pending.

Iraq has slashed income tax to 15% from 49% and substantially increased the minimum sums individuals can earn net of tax.

The progressive tax system replaces a 1982 law under which individuals had to pay 49% of income beyond certain salary brackets.

The current tax system is progressive. It starts with 3% up to a maximum of 15%...

Parents’ income is only taxable if together they earn more than 4.5 million dinars. Besides, there are allowances of 400,000 dinars annually for each child. Previously, annual incomes beyond 1.6 million dinars were taxed...

Companies have seen their taxes slashed from 35% to 15%.

A market-driven monetary policy has reduced the Iraqi dinar's vulnerability to political upheaval and is keeping the exchange rate stable, Central Bank Governor Sinan al-Shabibi said.

A $5 billion build-up of central bank foreign reserves, after its assets were mostly looted following the 2003 invasion, has helped maintain the rate at 1,465-1,475 dinars to the dollar, Shabibi said.

'We are very comfortable with the present exchange rate,' said Shabibi, who was on a visit to Jordan.

'It is a boost to the donors because it introduces predictability, stability and maintains the external purchasing power of the currency,' Shabibi said, referring to billions of dollars of international aid flows for reconstruction.

Despite the postwar violence that has badly delayed economic recovery, the dinar remained stable for more than a year compared with violent fluctuations during Saddam's rule, when it was battered by wars and crushing UN sanctions.

Foreign banks, allowed to enter Iraq in 2003 for the first time in decades, are opting to buy stakes or enter partnerships rather than set up subsidiaries in the present unstable security climate, Shabibi said.

Among the banks with licences are HSBC, Standard Chartered and National Bank of Kuwait...

Regional bankers say Jordan-based Arab Bank and Lebanon's leading Audi Bank are also actively seeking a foothold in Iraqi market...

Joint ventures helped raise the capital base of the country's local banks and bring much needed technology, management upgrades and exposure, he added.

Iraq's 30 private banks, mainly small deposit banks, had to develop their lending if they were to progress, Shabibi said.

'The balance sheets of banks need much development as far as lending but not on the deposit side. They have a lot of liquidity but their problem is their lending policies,' he added.

The Kurdistan Development Corporation, a joint investment initiative between the Kurdistan Regional Government and international business people, announced the opening of a branch in Munich, Germany...

[Mr Siggy Martsch, KDC Director for Germany] said: “Serious interest in Kurdistan by German companies is already evident; Siemens are working successfully on the ground and Vossing Engineering have just won a contract to design a sewage system for Erbil city. Our office in Germany will further promote the region and facilitate business for the German companies that are bound to follow.”

Earlier this month KDC facilitated a 2.4 million dollar deal between the Kurdistan Regional Government Ministry for Municipalities and German company Vossing Engineering to design a sewage system.

Iran and Iraq are planning to build three pipelines, at Iran's expense, to cover Iraq's urgent need for petroleum and refined oil products, said Iranian Oil Minister Bijan Namdar Zanganeh.

Iraq will export crude oil to Iran, and Iran will transport petroleum and other refined products to Iraq, which is suffering from shortages in its petrochemicals industry, the minister told a press conference, attended by Iraqi Prime Minister Ibrahim Jaafari, who is visiting Iran.

Zanganeh said the agreement has not yet been signed, but the exchange will begin 10 months after it is signed.

'The plan is for Iran to buy 150,000 barrels per day of light crude from Basrah (in southern Iraq)', he said.

'In return, Iran will supply petroleum, gasoil and kerosene (to Iraq)', he said. 'The gasoil and kerosene will be supplied by the Abadan refinery (in Iran)', the minister added. The petroleum will be imported by Iran on Iraq's behalf.

A quarter of a century of wars and crushing sanctions have badly damaged Iraq's communications network, and mobile phones were only introduced in the country of about 27 million people after the invasion in2003 .

With only about 3 per cent of the population with a fixed-line phone, the country is increasingly dependent on mobile networks, which have more than two million customers as people struggle to stay in touch and do basic business.

Arbi l- Haydar Al Sheikh, the transportation and telecommunication minister in Iraqi Kurdistan government [said] that his ministry is about to finish the biggest project to secure phone communication among Arbil, Dahuk and Al Selaimania, at a cost of 32 million dollars.

He added that the project includes "building three new, German made, Siemens exchanges, with a capacity of 15 thousand lines for each exchange, which is executed by ITU Company, in addition to the "Access Network" project, at a cost of 13 million dollars, aiming at the information exchange among ministries, institutions and governmental universities.

On any flight on any airline there is a sense of relief when the aircraft completes take-off and levels out at its cruising altitude.

But on Flight IA015 the ping as the "fasten seatbelt" sign switched off brought its own euphoria. The aircraft's departure point was Baghdad and the carrier was Iraqi Airways, which has not been in the air for years.

Iraq's national airline has restarted a regular service to the southern city of Basra, 14 years after its fleet was effectively grounded by the international sanctions that followed the 1991 Gulf war.

The reborn carrier was inaugurated last month, its first trip celebrated with the sacrifice of a goat on the runway. It means that for £42 [$73], the price of a one-way economy class ticket, passengers from the capital can reach the south of the country in 55 minutes.

The first flight of a Kurdish-owned airline landed in the northern Iraqi city of Arbil on Thursday [21 July], linking one of the main cities in the heart of Kurdistan to Dubai.

The sole airplane belonging to the nascent Kurdistan Airlines, a Boeing 737, landed at 10:30 am (0630 GMT) carrying 46 Iraqi and Kurdish businessmen.

The Arbil airport was officially inaugurated on April 15.

Iraqi Airways plans to lease eight planes shortly to meet growing demand, despite concerns about security at Baghdad airport, Transport Minister Salam al-Malaki said...

The once formidable flag carrier, whose fleet was obliterated by wars and U.N. sanctions, will inaugurate regular flights in the next few days between Baghdad and Dubai and between Amman and Suleimaniya in northern Iraq, Malaki said.

"Iraqi Airways is making a comeback. We have a broad plan to lease cargo and passenger planes," Malaki told Reuters.

"We are also finalising permits and routes to Tehran, Istanbul and Cairo," said Malaki, who was in Jordan to attend an international donor conference for Iraq.

The Iraqi carrier started regular flights to Amman and Damascus earlier this year. Other companies flying to Baghdad include Royal Jordanian, which has two to three round trips a day, and private operators in the Gulf.

[Crum] estimated that work is about two-thirds complete on 3,000 projects "the Iraqis identified as being a critical need"...

The PCO's charter is to steward roughly $18.44 billion in funds President Bush approved in 2003 for the Iraqi Relief and Reconstruction Fund. The three-year program is responsible for projects throughout Iraq's 18 provinces in an area covering 166,000 square miles...

Now in its second year, the program is spending about $1 billion every 45 days.

A main goal is to employ as many Iraqis as possible and to hire Iraqi firms for contract work when possible. Crum explained officials hope to build capacity within the Iraqi workers so they can take the projects over in the future. On any given day 40,000 to 45,000 Iraqis are employed on PCO projects throughout Iraq, he said.

Donor countries have agreed in principle on a new mechanism which gives Iraq the leading role in reconstruction efforts...

The Iraq Reconstruction Forum, dubbed the "IRFO," will be launched in two weeks, said Michael Bell, chairman of the International Reconstruction Fund Facility for Iraq, a body developed early in 2004 to help donor nations channel resources and coordinate support for reconstruction and development in Iraq.

“What the Iraqi government has proposed was a new donor coordination mechanism to be established and that will deal separately from IRFFI, that will be a mechanism, in which the Iraqi government will take full ownership in the development process in a real and concrete way,” Bell said. “It will be the Iraqis who will chair that body and they will deal with all donors on bilateral and multilateral levels through coordination,” he told a news conference at the end of two days of talks by representatives of 60 countries and international organizations on Iraq's reconstruction. Bell said Iraqi Planning Minister Barham Salih will head IRFO. It was not immediately clear how the emerging body will interact with the existing International Reconstruction Fund.

So far, 19 fund members -- including the United States, Japan and Canada -- have pledged over $1 billion to IRFFI, a statement said. It said more pledges were made Monday, including $5.5 million from Denmark, $20 million from Australia, $2.4 million from Greece, $180.8 million from the European Commission, $12 million from Italy and $20 million from Spain. The contributions are separate from the $32 billion in loans and grants pledged for Iraq's reconstruction at the October 2003 donor conference in Madrid, Spain. Bell said the next meeting will be held in February 2006.

Both Turkey and Iran have expressed readiness to supply Iraq with 1800 MW of electricity, the share of Turkey is 1000 MW to supply Nineveh, Dohook and Erbial with electricity. The Engineer Haithem Taha, the advisor at the Electricity Ministry said that the Islamic Republic of Iran had agreed to connect it’s electricity grid with Iraqi National grid over Diyla and Amara outlets to supply Iraq with 800 MW (it is an Iranian superabundant).

It is hopeful to sign special contract in this concern between the two countries over the next two weeks, the contract stipulates that the Iranian side will continue to supply Iraq over this period with electricity link for 18 months from the beginning of signing the contract.

To ameliorate water shortages in Sadr City, Baghdad, a modern water treatment plant will be constructed to increase the quantity and quality of potable water to the area. Significant progress is being made by the Iraqi subcontractor on the facility’s structural design. Workers have completed dewatering and have begun laying the foundation. The foundation grading, filling, and sub-base compaction for the facility’s recycle pump station, sedimentation area, residual pump station, and intermediate pump are completed. Also the concrete has been poured for the foundations of the operations building and the residual solid pump station...

Work continues on a project to repair the sewage collection system in Kadhamiya, a northern suburb of Baghdad with a population of 1.5 million. The district frequently endures flooding of raw sewage which remains as pools in streets and homes. These overflows occur because of inadequate or blocked sewer lines, and because inoperable pump stations cannot convey sewage from homes and mains to sewage treatment plants. The sewer lines require extensive repair or replacement. Public health risks from water-borne diseases (typhoid and cholera) are increased by pools of exposed raw sewage in neighborhoods.

Sadr City’s municipal council is constructing 27 water purification plants, the site engineer said.

Sabah al-Batawi said the plants which will rely on wells for water supply are expected to ease pressure on the capital’s water utility which relies on the Tigris River for supplies.

Sadr City, Baghdad’s most impoverished neighborhood, suffers from erratic water and power supplies.

Batawi said the 27 projects built at a cost of $1.8 million are expected “to solve the huge water problem the city has been undergoing recently.”

Work on the plants started four months ago and one of them is already operational, Batawi said.

Underground water is available in huge quantities and easily accessible. But it is rather salty, unfit from both human and agricultural purposes.

Graduate students from Iraqi universities have finally received permission from the Ministry of Higher Education (MoHE) to have work they have completed authenticated by officials.

"Students from now on, will have the right to get their syllabus officially authenticated - this will help in their future outside the country as well as facilitate acceptance in worldwide universities," Salah Aliwi, a senior official in the MoHE, said.

Syllabus authorisation – an official record of subjects studied at higher education level - is seen as key to Iraqi graduates' having study and work options abroad.

During Saddam Hussein's regime no such official certificate was issued to graduates. This policy was designed to keep as many graduates in the country a possible.

"It is the right of any student to have their syllabus recognised," Aliwi explained.

Thousands of Arab students who had attended courses in Iraq during Saddam's regime had problems proving what they had been studying. The news that syllabus authorisation is to be introduced means many may now return to Iraq to avail themselves of the facility.

The U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) Basic Education program is rebuilding water and sanitation facilities in 800 schools.

In May, work began on 132 schools, bringing the total number of schools under rehabilitation to 355.

Facilities in 11 Maysan governorate schools have already been completed.

The Basic Education program is also leading efforts to reconstruct 70 schools throughout the country.

Training recently began for the Master Trainers under the teacher training initiative of the Basic Education program.

Twenty-five Iraqi Master Trainers are currently participating in a five-week training in Amman, Jordan conducted by Hashemite University experts and international/regional consultants.

The training will help the Master Trainers develop teacher training strategies, methodologies and resource materials.

When finished, they will return to Iraq to train a core group of 440 teacher trainers in the 21 Directorates of Education in Iraq. These teacher trainers will then begin the process of training 50,000 teachers for grades one to three.

"In recent weeks, the UN worked to vaccinate 4.7 million Iraqi children five years and under ... as part of a series of initiatives aimed at bolstering health among the population," the statement in the Jordanian capital, Amman, said on Sunday [17 July].

In an effort to reach the largest number of people, the UN, with the support of private mobile phone service providers, sent text messages to announce the polio immunisation campaign.

"This support by private companies demonstrated the spirit of corporate civil responsibility emerging in Iraq," the statement said on the eve of a two-day international donors' conference hosted by Jordan.

The Board of Directors of the Export-Import Bank of the United States (Ex-Im Bank) has approved an insurance policy for CoBank, ACB for up to $180 million in Letters of Credit to support U.S. exports to Iraq.

The insurance will be used to support trade financing from CoBank, ACB, a cooperative bank and part of the U.S. Farm Credit System. Under this policy, Ex-Im Bank will support Letters of Credit issued by the Trade Bank of Iraq (TBI) in favor of U.S. exporters including Telwar International, Inc. of Brentwood, Tennessee to purchase bulk agricultural commodities, including an estimated $27 million a month in rice and wheat shipments.

"This financing will enable U.S. exporters to provide the Iraqi people with large volumes of bulk agricultural commodities and other goods and services on a timely basis," Chairman Philip Merrill said.

"Ex-Im Bank remains fully committed to supporting Iraq's reconstruction and is diligently working to find new and creative financing solutions to meet Iraq's financing needs."

Two irrigation canal cleaning projects are underway in Ninawa’ and Diyala’ governorates to improve farmers’ access to water and increase agricultural production. The projects are funded by USAID’s Agricultural Research and Development for Iraq (ARDI) program...

ARDI, in cooperation with the Ministry of Agriculture (MOA), is conducting a survey of poultry farms near Baghdad to collect information about the poultry industry, including the economic performance of poultry farms. The results will allow ARDI and the MOA to better understand the poultry industry and the problems poultry farmers face...

USAID and the MOA recently conducted a series of technical demonstrations for tomato farmers in Karbala, Najaf and Basrah governorates. The demonstrations familiarize farmers with new technologies for tomato production in order to boost the yield and quality of tomato crops...

To increase farmer income and reduce public health risks, USAID has recently approved a grant that will fund a training program to improve livestock breeding techniques in Iraqi villages... The program will provide training to 4,800 women in 240 villages to improve breeding techniques and educate the rural population about preventing the spread of diseases from animals...

To help create a local market for beekeeping equipment, the MOA and ARDI will provide training to local carpenters in manufacturing high quality beehives. Thirteen carpenters from Arbil, Dahuk, Sulaymaniyah, Kirkuk and Ninawa will participate in a workshop on manufacturing beehives that meet international standards.

USAID is providing a grant to four Iraqi villages to clean irrigation canals that had not been maintained in three years... The farmers will clean 9,500 meters of canal serving 625 hectares of land and benefiting 150 families living in the four villages.

The results of a USAID-sponsored survey in 14 Iraqi governorates will determine the training needs of pesticide dealers as part of the MOA’s Integrated Pest Management Strategy...

The Kurdistan Agronomist Syndicate (KAS) is renovating its building through a grant from MOA/ARDI. The KAS has a membership of over 2,000 agriculturists and conducts activities promoting agricultural production, including computer courses for agricultural engineers, and supervision for agriculture projects in the private sector...

ARDI is sponsoring a geneticist from the Ministry of Science and Technology to obtain training in genetics relevant to Iraqi agriculture...

Construction began this week for a flower nursery to be managed by a prominent women’s union. This effort will provide business opportunities to women-headed households. Twenty-three women will also receive management training and training on potted plant production...

Twenty-nine water buffalo producers in Baghdad, Al Qadisiyah, Al Muthanna’, and Dhi Qar are participating in a program to improve pregnancy and calving rates using hormonal treatment and improved nutrition...

MOA/ARDI has initiated a program to introduce sorghum as a less expensive feed grain for the poultry industry.

Minister of Water Resources Abdulatif Rashid is to fly to Iran to see what the two countries can do to revitalize joint marshlands.

The Huwaiza marsh, perhaps the only remaining wetland the former leader Saddam Hussein failed to dry, straddles the borders of the two countries.

The marsh escaped Saddam Hussein’s massive draining campaigns of southern wetlands because it received its water from rivers originating in Iran.

Rashid said he would meet his Iranian counterpart “to discuss water issues particularly the joint Huwaiza marsh.”

The largest portion of the 3,500 sq. km. Huwaiza lies in Iraqi territory with Iran having access only to 1,150 sq. km.

“We are going to review policies on how to preserve the marshes, protect them and revive them particularly the wetlands we share,” Rashid said.

If “beauty lies in the eyes of the beholder” then residents of Karbala apparently feel that some of their most prized creative pieces may be seen in the framed, grouped, and carefully hung photographs of recently completed, community reconstruction projects.

The residents of this city of 200,000 were justifiably pleased by the numerous local building projects they, not long ago, had completed for and by themselves. Accordingly, in a communal show of pride, they closed a local art gallery, took down its paintings, carefully replaced them with sets of pictures of each of the 89 projects they had, with their own hands, constructed, and held a festive open house to share their happiness.

USAID’s partner implementing the Community Action Program (CAP) in Qadisiyah, Wasit and Maysan Governorates is working with people with disabilities and the institutions that support them. CAP is currently constructing wheelchair access ramps in 37 local institutions in the city of Diwaniyah (Qadisiyah Governorate) and has nearly finished 23 access ramps in Al Amarah (Maysan Governorate).

In cooperation with the persons with disabilities association in Amarah, CAP will also provide 984 wheelchairs to disabled persons in Maysan Governorate. The distribution covers most of the districts in the governorate. Representatives from the disabled person’s community in Amarah are also holding public awareness sessions. They have conducted 17 public lectures and 21 school visits.

The Technical Institute in Diwaniyah organized a ramp design contest among its students to raise awareness for the need for architects to incorporate access ramps into building designs. This project is part of CAP’s commitment to integrate disabled persons into the community through awareness campaigns and other conveniences such as ramps.

LIFE for Relief and Development in cooperation with the International Humanitarian Help Organization of Germany (IHH) will be upgrading LIFE’s healthcare center in Basra.

LIFE established the center in 2001 and since its inception; the clinic has provided services to over 100,000 residents of Al-Hakimiyya and its surrounding areas. Although the upgrade aims to provide better services for all patients, the main focus will be the construction of a maternity and children’s hospital that will serve more than 200,000 people in Al-Hakimiyya, Tuwaisa, Junaina and Al-Andalus.

Currently, the clinic operates three hours a day due to limited resources. However, during these three hours, doctors at the facility see an average of 50 patients per day. At its current state and with the shortage of diagnostic equipment and advanced medical instruments, the clinic was still rated the best in Basra by the local health authority.

Adjacent land to the current building has been purchased and the hospital will be modified and another two-story building will be constructed to add 20 patient rooms, one operating room, one baby delivery room, a dental facility and a eye examination facility among others.

This expansion will ensure 12 beds for a new maternity ward, which will provide 5 incubators. Also, the hospital will implement an immunization system in coordination with UNICEF and the Iraqi Ministry of Health.

The total cost of this project is estimated at $360,000 and will be completed by the year 2007.

In cooperation with the Ministry of Health, LIFE for Relief and Development successfully distributed six containers of medical supplies that were donated by The Church of Jesus Christ of the Latter-day Saints.

The medical supplies were donated to local hospitals, medical centers and clinics throughout Iraq’s many provinces including Al-Mosul Main Hospital Al-Jumhuri Hospital, Al-Qaim Main Hospital, Samaraa Main Hospital, Diyala Health Center and many others.

LIFE also distributed medical publications to medical colleges and hospitals including Al-Mosul Medical College, Duhouk Medical College, Al-Anbar Medical College, Al-Ramadi Main Hospital and Al-Qaim Main Hospital.

The distributions of twenty containers of medical supplies and books will benefit thousands throughout the country and will ensure a better quality of life for the injured and ill.

Caritas-Iraq continues to give highest priority to its infant nutrition program, aimed at malnourished children, pregnant women and nursing mothers.

The aid reaches some 20,000 beneficiaries at risk, both Muslim and Christian, in Baghdad, Basra, Nassiriya, Umarah, Dialah and Saladin, according to the Catholic agency.

Caritas' nutrition program, which has been carried out for years in Iraq, benefits children under 8, women in their sixth month of pregnancy and beyond, and nursing mothers with babies under 6 months of age.

In addition to food aid, the beneficiaries are entitled to care in Caritas-Iraq's health centers, as well as free medical treatment.

War Child is providing a unique approach to promoting livelihoods on the basis of child rights, and is addressing the developmental needs of vulnerable children. This programme has four main components: Livelihoods, NGO capacity building, Psychosocial and Paralegal work. War Child is in the process of registering a new local NGO called “Nida’ il-Tifil” (“Call of the Child”), whom War Child will support in providing skills, training, financial and management assistance... Our assessment team in Iraq has identified 6 villages with whom we will work to achieve these aims through community based organisations. The progarmme invests in local capacity and builds on civil society.

Our other work in Southern Iraq continues: The Drop-in-Centres in Basra and Nasiriyah are progressing and enter the second stage of rehabilitation. Meanwhile training is being provided to local staff in the areas of Child Participatory Research, Child Protection, Counseling Skills etc; and Participatory Action Research with the street children has started in Basra. The centres will provide a safe place for vulnerable street children and help them to gain access to education, skills and better opportunities for their future.

EZSchoolSupplies is an online store (EZSchoolSupplies.com) that delivers kits costing an average of $40 to customers' front doors or directly to schools. Founder and President Matthew Curtis, 23, came up with the concept for a college marketing class. The professor gave him a D-minus, but Curtis found investors and launched the pilot for EZSchoolSupplies last year...

The owner of a California winery who had done some missionary work in South Africa found the EZSchoolSupplies Web site in March. He contacted Van Noy and Curtis to see if they could help send supplies for 100 needy children in that country...

A U.S. Army "Battle Boar" battalion stationed in Iraq heard about the South African project and EZSchoolSupplies. It contacted the company in May, asking for help to get 1,000 supply kits to schoolchildren in Iraq.

"The local schools do not have funds to purchase supplies, for they are very impoverished. If your company can donate some supplies to help these kids, our battalion would appreciate your kind gesture," said the May 16 e-mail from SPC Steven Wilkerson, U.S. Army...

EZSchoolSupplies decided it could afford to send 300-500 kits to Iraq, with the help of some business partners and investors -- Golden-based Quasar Group, Evergreen-based Relatrix and Corona, Calif.-based eKnowledge.

Van Noy and Curtis learned some lessons from their South African experience they'll use when packing the Iraqi school kits -- such as crayons don't survive extreme desert heat in the packs. They are opting for colored pencils.

Other modifications have been made as well as both teachers in South Africa and the U.S. Army in Iraq didn't want scissors or similar objects that could be used as weapons.

These projects have inspired Curtis to set up an international outreach program on his Web site, where companies can choose schools or students in need, here and abroad, to sponsor. Companies or individuals can click on the site and send off a school supply kit to needy youngsters in a local Denver classroom or buy some kits in bulk for students in Brazil, Van Noy said.

A small idea turned into a big project for two parishioners at St. Thomas More Catholic Church.

Anne and Caine Thomas wrote an e-mail to their fellow parishioners after their brother-in-law, U.S. Army reservist Capt. Christopher Ortega, suggested they ask people to donate sandals for the shoeless children he saw while on patrol in Tikrit, Iraq.

"We didn't try to turn it into a project, but as soon as people found out, they have been writing checks," Anne Thomas said.

So far, $300 has been donated.

The project, called "Sandals for Iraq," was picked up by St. Thomas More's Catholic Church and subsequently the other three Catholic churches in the Iowa City, including St. Mary's, St. Patrick's and St. Wenceslaus. Donation boxes have been placed at all the churches for sturdy sandals and flip-flops for children aged 4 to 10.

Despite financial troubles, a woman who runs a nonprofit group that ships toys, school supplies, sporting goods, clothing and Beanie Babies to impoverished Iraqi children hopes to keep the gifts flowing to Iraq.

Beanies for Baghdad, which was founded in 2003 by an Army officer who befriended an Iraqi girl, is now run by Donna Ward out of her Evansville home.

On Friday afternoon, several plastic bags of school supplies, Beanies, clothing and stuffed animals lay on her living room floor. Ward and her husband, Gerald, have shipped more than 500 boxes of items for children in Iraq.

They estimate that they have spent more than $2,000 of their own money shipping boxes to Iraq and have spent another $1,500 donated by other sources, including local businesses and other aid organizations.

Donna Ward has collected six large boxes of toys for another mailing. The homemaker estimates it will cost $200 to $250 to send it first class to Iraq.

A Missouri community is helping U.S. soldiers bring some joy to thousands of Iraqi children, who find themselves caught in the middle of a military battle.

Dick Merseal lives in Richwoods, Missouri. "I think our town has a big heart, our town is the most giving. Anytime someone has a need or something, this town really kicks in."

Merseal started filling boxes with toys at his Richwoods home. He's got a good reason for helping out. His son is National Guard Captain Kurt Merseal, who is currently serving in Iraq.

When Army Capt. Jonathan Powers crossed the Iraq border at the end of his 14-month tour last July he happily believed he'd never see the country again.

That was then.

Now Powers is making plans to return to Iraq as a civilian, to help the children he hasn't been able to forget.

Powers, 27, is director of the upstart Orphans and Street Kids Project, whose goal is to coordinate the country's ill-equipped orphanages and offer vocational training for children living on the streets and out of the facilities' reach.

In the end, a 7-year-old Iraqi boy's long, dark eyelashes may have saved his life.

Kadhem Jawad Kathem is doing well after arriving in Houston last week and undergoing a five-hour operation Tuesday at Texas Children's Hospital to "replumb" his congenitally malformed heart, his surgeon said.

Purple-lipped when he arrived because of his heart's inability to adequately circulate blood through his lungs, Kadhem is showing normal blood-oxygen levels and will likely be well enough to go home in a month.

"I am very grateful to everybody, to the American troops back in Iraq, to all Houstonians and I'm very grateful to the doctors who did the surgery" said the boy's father, Jawad Kathem, a 33-year-old mechanic from southern Iraq. Kathem, who speaks Arabic, spoke to the Associated Press through a translator.

In January, Kadhem met Maj. Brian Stevens, a civil affairs officer serving in Iraq with the Fort Worth-based 56th Brigade Combat Team, 36th Infantry Division, Texas National Guard. Stevens had arrived in a town in southern Iraq — the exact location is confidential — a month earlier, beginning a yearlong deployment to build schools and hospitals.

Kadhem's mother made a wrenching plea for her son, too weak to attend school or play. She gave Stevens X-rays and medical documents to take to a military doctor at the base.

It was "those eyelashes" that captivated soldiers, said Chief Master Sgt. Gonda Moncada, Texas National Guard spokeswoman. "Obviously, many (Iraqi) children would benefit from surgery. We can't help them all."

The military doctor, a cardiologist, evaluated Kadhem and determined he needed help — quickly. After searching the Internet, the cardiologist found Dr. Charles Fraser Jr., an expert in repairs of severe cardiac malformations at Texas Children's. Moncada said the cardiologist contacted Fraser directly, via e-mail, and asked, "If we can get the kid into the States, will you do the surgery?"

Rep. Trent Franks, R-Ariz., underwent his first operation for a cleft palate as age 2 weeks, and since then has had 10 more related operations.

He says he considers himself lucky for the improvements those operations have made.

"It's been painful," Franks, 48, said in an interview. But he said the improvements have meant things as basic as being able to speak more clearly.

Now, the two-term congressman is trying to help Iraqi children who have had the same birth defect, as well as other Iraqi children suffering from facial injuries or abnormalities.

On Thursday, Franks traveled to Amman, Jordan, for the first mission of what is being called the Iraq initiative of "Operation Smile," an organization whose doctors perform operations on children to help correct or minimize their facial defects or injuries.

The mission kicks off what is anticipated to be a five-year effort geared to the children of that country. Until now, the program has not been available to Iraqi children.

In all, as many as 50 Iraqi children were to be brought to Amman this weekend to be treated by a team of volunteer surgeons.

Ayad al-Sirowiy came to America last week hoping doctors here could remove the war embedded in his face.

Thirteen years old, small and skinny, Ayad was severely burned and blinded in one eye when a American cluster bomb blew up in his face at the beginning of the Iraq war.

The explosion blasted thousands of fragments into his skin and left even deeper emotional scars. The village boys teased him, calling him "Mr. Gunpowder." Even on sweltering days, Ayad wraps a scarf around his face when he leaves home, and most nights, he sleeps with sunglasses to mask his scars.

But all that may change.

On Friday, Ayad and his father, Ali, walked into a laser surgery clinic in Washington to begin a series of treatments to remove the map of pinpoint scars that cover most of Ayad's face.

Doctors say a full recovery for Ayad may be a long shot, but at the urging of a lawyer who read about his plight and labored for more than a year to bring the boy to America, top dermatologists and cornea surgeons are willing to try.

What finally got Ayad here was an unlikely alliance between the lawyer, Joe Tom Easley, a well-known gay rights activist, and Robert Reilly, a conservative adviser to the U.S. Defense Department reviled in gay circles for an article he once wrote calling homosexuality "morally disordered."

Since the transfer of sovereignty, a total of 1,451 projects valued at $1.4 billion have been completed. Large-scale capital projects like power plants, water treatment plants and oil infrastructure facilities are being reconstructed and, in some cases, built anew.

Demand for electricity is currently growing faster than it is able to be supplied; however, new power lines of 33 kilovolts have been completed. Generation plants are being built and transmission lines are being constructed to replace a decades-old, neglected electrical power system. A total of more than 2,000 megawatts of power have been added to the grid ( enough to service 5.4 million Iraqi homes ). More than 1,400 electrical towers and 8,600 kilometers of transmission lines have been installed.

Many sewer trunk lines have been cleaned or fixed. Work on the majority of sewer trunk lines continues and progress continues.

Each day, 50 million additional gallons of treated, drinkable water are being pumped to the Baghdad residents. New water wells and treatment facilities are in the progress of being constructed in addition to new delivery pipes being installed.

Solid waste ( trash ) is being removed from the majority of sites in the Baghdad area; with some areas having it removed at least twice a week.

More than 20 healthcare facilities have been renovated, with many others in the process of being renovated.

The US Army Corps of Engineers, in partnership with the Fallujah City Council and the Fallujah Reconstruction Committee, has made considerable progress in restoring water, sewage and electrical service in the city of Fallujah to levels that existed prior to Operation New Dawn (Al Fajr) in November 2004.

Elevated water storage tanks have been repaired and water is now at pre-November 2004 levels. Projects are underway to increase the capacity of the current system to modern standards. These projects will upgrade the current capacity of fresh water in the city by three million gallons per day.

The Fallujah Electric Department and the USACE have worked together to bring the level of electrical distribution up to approximately 80% of the existing system’s capacity. They plan to bring the system up to 100% of its pre-November 2004 capacity by December 2005. The existing system is also being brought up to current standards. Every home and business in the city is scheduled to have safe and modern electrical connections by next spring.

A modern sewage collection system is under construction, which will replace the septic tanks currently in use. The system is 80% complete, and will remove waste from 3,100 homes. Construction of a sewage treatment facility is scheduled to start in about two months.

Over the next several months, the USACE will finish construction on a health clinic, four schools, and four 250-man police stations. Construction of a 500 man police station will start later this year.

Fallujah residents received approximately $203,000 in property lease payments during the second round of the Property Leasing Program last week. Second Marine Division marines and sailors, along with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (USACE), executed 139 leases during a two-day period.

The program, which began in June, was created to compensate local residents whose homes were or are currently occupied by coalition forces. Last month, 94 contracts were completed and $76,000 in payments were made in three days.

“The impact is two-fold,” Maj. Tom Nelson, 5th Civil Affairs Group economic development officer, said. “First, and most importantly, the people of Fallujah see us doing the right thing by paying them for the use of their properties. Secondly, we inject much-needed capital directly into the local economy.”

The first of 27 new compact water treatment units officially opened in Sadr City July 19.

"The compact water units bring needed water to the residents while the expanded water system for Sadr City continues to develop," said U.S. Army Lt. Col. Gary Luck, commander of 3rd Battalion 15th Infantry, 2nd Brigade Combat Team, 3rd Infantry Division, the coalition unit which works with Sadr City.

"I want to thank the coalition forces for helping to bring this project to completion. The people of Sadr City will benefit from having clean water readily available to them," Sheik Jabar Nashour Jasim

Each water unit produces 15,000 liters of clean potable water a day.

"A total of 405,000 liters per day will be produced once all the of units are installed and operational," said Luck, who is from Salina, Kan.

A compact water unit is a small water treatment facility, using well water or city water as a source of supply. The water is fully treated and ready for drinking.

One mission that has remained constant for the U.S. soldiers of 3rd Battalion, 7th Infantry Regiment, 4th Brigade Combat Team, 3rd Infantry Division since arriving in Iraq is helping to rebuild the civilian infrastructure. This is done in many ways, but the intent is to have Iraqis rebuild Iraq.

Although a small project for the Al Rasheed district, the opening of the Jihad Sewing School July 5 was a big step forward in improving the local economy.

“The school is small but they are training about 15 to 20 women and when they finish, they will be able to go directly into the work force and put their skills to use,” said Capt. Christian Neels, 3rd Battalion, 7th Infantry Regiment civil-military operations officer, and native of Muscatine, Iowa.

The school teaches women to use sewing machines to make clothing and a variety of other items. These items can be sold on the local economy or the women can get a job in a local factory.

Everything was stripped from the rooms of the University of Baghdad's School of Dentistry that Col. Franklin Woo walked through.

Even the college's library of dental textbooks were gone, which still has Woo wondering why the looters took them.

"They had stripped everything out of there down to the copper wiring," Woo said.

The college was one of the buildings that was looted when the American military entered Baghdad in 2003.

Woo, a command dental surgeon for the Army Reserve's 2nd Medical Brigade, decided that restoring the devastated school was a good place to start winning Iraqi hearts and minds.

Woo and the others supplied everything from cotton wool and student furniture to computers and sterilization equipment.

Calls to the University of the Pacific's and the University of San Francisco's schools of dentistry and the San Francisco Dental Society garnered two tons of dental textbooks to replace the lost texts.

An Iraqi female police station tops the list of more than a dozen active construction and planned projects by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Gulf Region South District in Najaf.

The female police facility will be used to train female cadets to properly search other females at the many checkpoints and security stops throughout Iraq. The contract for the facility is expected to be awarded by the middle of July and carries a price tag of about $150,000.

Three other police station projects will be under construction by the middle of July and are in Waf’a and Najaf city. Two are police stations and one will be a headquarters building. The projects carry a price tag of $130,000 for the Waf’a police station, $158,000 for the Najaf EOD station and $26,000 for the Najaf headquarters facility. Planned improvements include new windows, doors and security walls.

Other projects planned in the city include the Al Shorta Substation with a cost of $3.8 million and a water treatment unit at Rmol Al Shebl for $215,000 and the Najaf Teaching Hospital. The hospital is a viable operational outpatient clinic capable of outpatient surgeries and emergency room visits is ready for the next phase of renovation which will include an industrial kitchen, multiple stories and many outlying buildings. The project has a total cost of more than $15 million.

Despite the blistering summertime heat, more than 200 children and community members gathered at the Bayaa Youth Center in the Al Rashid district to participate in a uniform and wheelchair distribution, followed by a soccer game July 13.

“The event was outstanding and turn-out was great,” said Capt. Jeffrey LaPlante, commander of Company B, 3rd Battalion, 7th Infantry Regiment, 4th Brigade Combat Team, 3rd Infantry Division.

“When we arrived, a group was already practicing hurdles at the track and kids were playing soccer,” said LaPlante, a native of Lakeland, Fla.

The Bayaa Neighborhood Council had been conducting public assistance projects to improve the quality-of-life of residents in their neighborhood during the past two weeks.

In addition to the soccer match that afternoon, a community health screening was conducted where more than 300 people were treated for minor illnesses by Iraqi doctors and given food and other humanitarian aid.

The community program also provided complete soccer uniforms, soccer balls, and a variety of other items for the 240 children involved in the Bayaa Youth Soccer League. There was enough equipment to outfit 15 teams.

Program coordinators distributed wheelchairs to disabled persons in the area.

The Australian government will fund community projects in southern Iraq worth A$2 million, including the building of an ambulance station and mobile health clinic.

Defence Minister Robert Hill said the A$2.3 million worth of projects would be coordinated by a working group within the Australian army's Al Muthanna Task Group (AMTG) and would ensure Australia left a lasting legacy in southern Iraq...

The projects include the construction of a veterinary centre in the rural centre of Darraji, a veterinary medical storage facility at As Samawah, renovating the As Samawah grain silo laboratory, providing equipment for Al Muthanna media outlets, constructing an animal waste disposal unit in As Samawah, building an ambulance station at Al Khidr, providing a mobile health clinic for the Al Muthanna province, renovating a community centre at Al Salman, and supplying water testing kits for the Al Muthanna province.

At the moment, the Romanian forces, in cooperation with Italian Multinational Specialized Unit (MSU), have finished the first two training courses, based on teaching techniques, procedures and tactics in Military Operations in Urban Terrain (MOUT) with a duration of three weeks, completing the last course in the first week of July.

Captain Laurentiu Matei, Chief of the Security Sector Reform project from "Călugăreni" said: "Iraqi soldiers are very interested in what we are teaching them and they were improving from week to week".

Led by Captain Marius Serban, about forty Romanian instructors are currently participating in the training duties of the IA held in White Horse IA base (10 km from Camp Mittica) using their knowledge and skills for the benefit of the IA officers and soldiers.

Less than an hour after a suicide bomber detonated an explosives vest outside an army recruiting center here Wednesday, killing at least six people, Iraqi security officials were talking about the next working day.

"We'll be open first thing in the morning," said Sgt. Abbad al-Zarah, a commander with the security platoon in charge of securing the site. "And there'll be recruits."

The morning blast outside the center was the seventh attack there this year, including a suicide bombing 10 days earlier at the same gate that killed 21 would-be recruits, the Interior Ministry said.

But the barrage of lethal attacks has not stopped recruits from returning. Two days after the July 10 attack, where a bomber snuck past guards and detonated a bomb among waiting recruits, a line formed on Damascus Street for applications.

"I had to turn people away," said Ahmed Hatem Muhsin, a guard at the gate. "People in Iraq are strong. Stupid and strong."

A new crop of Iraqi soldiers and leaders completed their training at Kirkush Military Training Base here on July 13. Basic Combat Training Class 11 held a ceremony to celebrate the completion of the eight-week course on the 13th of July. The Iraqi Training Battalion trained the group of over 990 recruits...

The same day, the base also held a passing out ceremony to celebrate the tandem graduations of the Iraqi Army's Squad Leader and Platoon Sergeant Courses. Soldiers from across Iraq attended the four-week courses run by the Iraqi Training Brigade. The courses are designed to foster leadership in the growing Iraqi noncommissioned officers corps. More than 230 soldiers completed the Squad Leader Course and 42 graduated the Platoon Sergeant Course.

Breathing, squeezing the trigger and keeping the enemy in sight are just a few of the technical shooting techniques taught by 1st. Sgt. Amir Jabar Taleb of the 1st Iraqi Army Brigade, 6th Division, to some of the first female Soldiers inducted into the Iraqi Army.

For the first time in Iraq’s history, Iraqi leadership at an Iraqi base conducted an all-female IA basic training course. Over the past two weeks, 27 female recruits have had intensive training to learn the necessary skills to become a Soldier.

"They learned how to use weapons, map reading and battle tactics to engage the enemy during combat,” said Brig. Gen. Jaleel Khalaf Shawail, commanding general of the 1st Iraqi Army Bde., 6th Div.

The tenth division on the Iraqi army and navy force has organized two separate celebrations for the graduation of two new classes of volunteers in Basra city.

Brigadier general Saad Al Harbia, commander of the second brigade of the tenth division, said, "180 volunteers have finished their major training to join the division forces, after they received various military sciences in theoretical lectures and mobilization exercises, in which officers from the Italian and Romanian forces working within the multinational forces, have participated.
In Om Qasr region, the navy and coastal defense force has conducted the ceremony for the graduation of a new group of volunteers to support these growing forces with new elements that are capable of protecting the national waters and coasts.

Commodore Task-Force (CTF) 58 Royal Australian Navy (RAN) commodore Steve Gilmore said the Iraqi forces are currently part of the task force, which includes US, British and Australian coalition forces charged with protecting and patrolling the Gulf.

He said their mission is to detect, deter and deny terrorists or extremists posing a serious threat to key maritime infrastructures in the region, such as the Iraqi oil terminals.

"As part of our mission, we are also integrating the Iraqi naval force into our task force," he said.

"They are actually replacing coalition units rather than working alongside them."

Cmdr Gilmore, who was speaking on board guided missile cruiser USS Normandy which is anchored at Mina Salman, said they are beginning phase two of the three-phase process of preparing Iraqis to take command control of their waters.

"Over the next 12 months the pieces will be put together after the Iraqi Navy take on new equipment and achieve higher training and expertise," he said.

As the battle against insurgency continues in Iraq, U.S. forces in Kirkuk are taking the backseat and putting Iraqi police (IP) up front and in control.

Soldiers of 3rd platoon, Company B, 2nd Battalion, 116th Brigade Combat Team have been working with the Kirkuk police for almost six months and said they feel confident that it's time for the Iraqis to be seen as in charge.

"The Iraqi police have been running traffic control points (TCP) since May and they have been doing a pretty good job," said Staff Sgt. Brad E. Attebery, a Soldier with the 3rd platoon and native of Weiser, Idaho. "Now we stay out of sight so the town of Kirkuk sees its police out in front doing their job."

As Jabar strides down the street, she draws snickers from women covered from head to toe in abayas (robes and veils).

"For them, it's amazing," Jabar said. "Maybe it's the first time they see a woman with a uniform or with pants."

The young girls she meets are fascinated, asking her questions and posing with her for pictures.

I have been skeptical of the national media coverage of the War on Terrorism since my return home from Iraq. Immediately I noticed that each day the death count of American soldiers was given, yet it was a rare occasion to see coverage on the accomplishments being made over there. I began to feel as though the consensus of the news media was that news from Iraq wasn't news unless it was bad news...

I understand that not all people agree with this war, but the broadcasting world is doing a huge injustice to soldiers by using its weight to levy against an already diminishing support for the war. If we only count the bodies but never mention the accomplishments, we are undermining everything each of our soldiers has done...

The media needs to recognize the accomplishments of our soldiers. Wouldn't all of you like to know what our troops are dying for? In the hearts of those families and friends who have lost soldiers to this war, there is no accomplishment in Iraq worth the life of the ones they love. But for every solider who walked an extra step or lent an extra hand to ensure that his or her mission was completed to make those accomplishments happen, it is worth it. That's why so many give their lives.