So, Tim, why does this surprise you?

Tom has always wanted to move up the political ladder and this is his natural evolution.

Me thinks he will make an excellent Lt. Gov and will supply the brains to the Governator's brawn!

Its time for some new leadership especially given how little he communicates with his consituents. I would like McClintock to apologize for initially supporting the electrical deregulation that got us into the mess in the first place.

Don't think so Masry!

Stick to running for the Assembly!

Tom represents us well. He is one of us!

Tom grew up here.... where have you been all this time?

With the exception of Iraq for a year and a half I have been here all this time. Sorry your comment lacks much in the way of conviction, though I am curious what elements of McClintocks leadership you admire so much?

What is there not to like about Tom?

So, you were a soldier in Iraq, but your mother campaigns against the war.

But, where do you stand?

I'd like to respond with the following. It is an op-ed piece that should soon be published on my views as a soldier serving in Iraq:

In my time in Iraq I saw both the worst of America and the best of America. I saw our ability to destroy and afflict those that stood in our way, at the same time comforting the afflicted with hope and freedom. I saw Iraqis that risked their lives to rebuild their nation and fellow soldiers that embodied the qualities of a noble warrior. I saw Army Chaplains working on building an orphanage for Shia orphans. I saw twenty year old privates from small town America who were tough as nails but melted around Iraqi children, writing their families and communities back home to send school supplies to a people, with whom they shared but a few words of English.

As I weep for the families of the 1000 fallen comrades-in-arms I mourn also the lost opportunities to accomplish so much more with the right leadership. Leadership that was more interested in declaring “Mission Accomplished” than in arming us with the lifesaving protection of armored humvees or proper bulletproof vests. Leadership that was more interested in winning the battle for the ‘American heartland’ than in arming us with the tools and moral ammo to win the ‘hearts and minds’ of a people that have suffered the brutality of their own regimes. We lost the peace as decisively as we won the battle.

As an Army Reserve Sergeant assigned to a Civil Affairs Battalion in Baghdad I had the opportunity many soldiers didn’t have to see a glimpse of the inner workings of the agency ran by the civilian leadership of the Department of Defense, the Coalition Provisional Authority under Ambassador Bremmer as it took the lead in shaping Iraq's future. Quite frankly much of what I saw disappointed me. Not only did many of their goals and decisions run counter to the promises my Commander in Chief stated before the world community, but they just as importantly ran counter to the needs of the military and placed my fellow American soldiers in danger.

The ‘millennium of mistakes’ seemed to be part of a strategy for failure that endangered soldiers. Decisions to disband the Iraqi Army, the misguided focus of CPA staffers on creating a market economy, failures in fulfilling contracts to equip the Iraqi Security Forces, failing to secure sites from looters to ransack hospitals and even a nuclear research plant on the outskirts of Baghdad were continous.

The very notion that could place a convicted criminal (Ahmed Chalabi) in charge of the Iraqi finance ministry and then have him sit next to Laura Bush during the State of the Union speech sent mixed signals to the reformers in the Middle East whose moderation and vision we need to combat the inequity that breeds terrorism.

Our leadership flip flopped in its guidance to the troops in ways that left us baffled. One day we are told we can shoot looters on sight, the next its supposedly rescinded. In the meantime Iraqi hospitals and a nuclear research plant on the outskirts of Baghdad are stripped bare. At one point a humanitarian group upstaged the military by offering Iraqis an exchange of clean containers for those taken from the unguarded Al tuwaitha research facility as people were experiencing radiation sickness.

CPA staffers attempted to so manipulate Iraqi media that even Iraqis whom didn’t trust or like the Pan Arabist or Islamist stances of Al Jazeera and Al Arabiya preferred it to CPA attempts to produced whitewashed santized news outlets. The bans on Al Jazeera further alienated Iraqis as it reeked of hypocrisy from a nation that spoke about freedom of speech and the press. In fact it was the CPA directed decision to shut down a Sadr Bureau paper in Baghdad that prompted the initial Madhi Army rebellion by a firebrand extremist Moqtada Al Sadr. Our actions sabotaged a quite campaign by Moderate Shiite leaders opposed to Sadr to discredit him.

The lack of troops to guard key sites right away meant we later found giant dump trucks trying to smuggle gold bricks out of the country to Syria and Iran. Anti terrorist financing efforts mean little if they can smuggle gold out of the country…

It seemed everyday CPA would put out new policy directives to both the Iraqis working in the newly formed ministries and to the military then change their minds so fast it made your head spin. At one point we kicked out nearly all the university professors because they had Baathist party affiliations only to reinstate them a year later realizing how counterproductive such actions were.

Bechtel failed to rehabiliate the schools they promised to fix immediately after the war before the school year began. Their subcontractors often looted those schools and began extortion racquets with the local parents. When Iraqis brought this up in protest to Bechtel they shrugged it off and dismissed them until the military got fed up and began the work themselves.

Bechtel was charged with rehabilitating the Iraqi electrical system however instead of working on transformers that needed time consuming but critical repairs they would submit reports highlighting how they painted the guard shack next to the transformer and planted flower pots. Martha Stewart would have been proud. Many of the antiquated power production facilities in Baghdad were originally built by Siemens but the decision to ban contracts to countries like Germany by the DOD hampered reconstruction efforts.

Commanders and soldiers that went on record with even the mildest of criticisms concerning policies or actions were often accused of aiding and abetting the enemy. I fail to see how Osama Bin Laden's associates would decide to party after reading an article in Newsweek as somehow a tactical victory.

It was demoralizing to see General Shinseki fired shortly after testifying to to Congress before the invasion that the Iraq war would require far more troops than planned by the SecDef.

The lack of clear and coherent policies meant that some soldiers who broke a toe were sent home, while those that broke their back were kept in theatre even though they were put on profiles prohibiting them from wearing a flak jacket.

Our constant violations of the Geneva and Hague conventions included initial plans once floated to have Kuwaitis donate the textbooks for Iraqi schools for the school year following the war. It included ideas like trying to change the Iraqi flag and even worse changing it to a blue and white flag which greatly served terrorist propoganda that it was an example of Israeli domination given the similar colors of the Israeli flag.

A walk around the CPA headquarters would often mean seeing quite a few copies of the book "The Arab Mind" a book that devotes a significant amount of time to the use of sexual humiliation similar to that of Abu Gharayb in Arab and Muslim societies and its effectiveness in interrrogation.

Even the creation of CPA itself was an affront to the State Department that was completely sidelined until Ayatollah Sistani basically dealt a death blow to the manipulated caucus system proposed by CPA when he demanded one vote for each Iraqi. Had Ayatollah Sistani, a moderate whose only desire is to not see his people brutalized by the likes of Saddam again, withdrawn his support, the very next day nearly three quarters of the Iraqi's working for the Coalition Forces or the newly formed Iraqi ministries would not show up to work. In one swift motion Iraq would have been lost. Only after a year of opportunities missed and gross errors made in which CPA repeatedly violated the Geneva and Hague Conventions did the State Department finally take the helm on July 1. As one State Department staffer quipped to me as I left Kuwait on my way back home, "we're hoping to undo all the screw-ups of CPA".

I am an American of both Arab descent and the Muslim faith. I took pride in serving the land of my birth, in being a part of a nation that has given my parents the opportunity to escape the dictatorships of places like my mother’s birthplace, Saudi Arabia. I relished the opportunity to talk to Iraqis even as I stood outside newly formed local democratic councils in the 100+ degree heat of a Baghdad summer carrying an M-16 and discussing the American system of justice. I took pride in telling Iraqis the best of what I saw in America. How I lived in a country where I was treated with respect for my faith. How on the morning of September 11th as I sat in a college class a Jewish female classmate turned to a scarf wearing Muslim woman and offered to escort her while she went shopping or ran errands lest anyone attempt to take out their anger on her. How I lived in a nation where every American was proud to see an African American boxer named Muhammad Ali light the Olympic flame at the Atlanta Games.

I refuse to believe that it can't be done. It is by virtue of our power and influence that we have the responsibility to serve as a source of leadership for the world. To be the "city upon the hill' that former President Ronald Reagan spoke of. Yet I and many of my fellow veterans feel betrayed by lost opportunities to write the wrongs of the past, to create a foreign policy that truly represents the America I cherish. A nation born of adversity with a noble vision that can win just wars when necessary, and then to win the peace by our commitment, the strength in our diversity, and leadership that sees past agendas and opportunism.

Ask an Arab who can best solve the Israeli-Palestinian crisis and they will tell you the United States.

Ask any Bosnian Muslim child about the day they cried tears of joy and they will tell you it was the day that US/NATO led F-16s flew over the Sarajevo and began shelling the hillside positions from which Serb snipers would shoot mothers and children as they ran to fetch water and firewood. That was the day they knew they were free, the day they knew their sisters would not end up in rape camps and their fathers would not find their resting place in a mass grave.

Some of those against the war spoke of the fact that containment against Saddam was working. In fact that containment was a declaration of a silent war against the Iraqi people. It strengthened the brutal regime of Saddam Hussein and allowed five hundred thousand Iraqi children to die from a lack of the most basic medicines in the arms of their mothers. I have come away from my experience in Iraq with the firm conviction that sanctions were both un-American and a brutal form of a silent death waged upon the civilian population. Those sanctions along with the Iran-Iraq War’, Gulf War and Operation Iraqi Freedom served as a triple whammy that devastated one of the most advanced nations in the Middle East reducing it to a society where tragically one would meet mothers who could read, yet their daughters were illiterate.

While many that supported the war continue to defend the threat of Al Qaeda and WMD connections, to most of us serving in Iraq it was really a moot point. The only exception being when I happened to see an inspector wearing an Iraq Survey Group Inspectors ID as I stood in line at the Baghdad Airports Burger King and teased them by suggesting they look behind the porta-potty for the WMD jackpot. Whatever lies or exaggerations were made matter little when you’re worried about incoming mortars. The punditry of armchair generals on American news channels beamed in via satellite to our operations centers made it seem like the enemy was amassed on the plains of the Karbala Gap awaiting our action. In fact the most useful intelligence that was vital in capturing terrorists was obtained not through interrogations at disgraces like Abu Ghraib or million dollar spy drones but simply from Iraqis walking up to soldiers at checkpoints risking their lives to save their country and inform on those who were sometimes related to them.

To win the war, to win the peace, and to bring our soldiers home safe we need for Iraq to succeed. There are four vital steps we must undertake to win

1. Security - Get the Iraqi Security Forces trained and equipped rapidly. Give General Petraus the tools he needs to do so with emergency authority.

2. Transparency - End the practice of sweetheart and no-bid contracts to companies like Bechtel and Halliburton. Internationally monitored transparency is essential to get more Iraqis employed by us, as opposed to working for Zarqawi Inc.

3. Elections - Fight for a nationwide census and election with the same vigor as the military campaign even if doing so brings about nationalistic leaders that may not necessarily like Americans. The goal is not to make Iraqis like America. It is to make Iraqis love their nation and take ownership in it. By making Iraq safer for the average Iraqi you make America safer.

4. Uphold our Ideals - Our commitment to human rights is a form of moral ammunition. Our Special Forces soldiers rely on it to win the battle for ‘hearts and minds’.

Alot of lefty talking points and foreign policy for a Sergeant in the Reserves.

So, what are you doing now? Still in the military? Or do you write for the LA Times?

Back to Tom McClintock.....obviosuly you do not like him? Why?

These are not "lefty" talking points, they are frustrations I saw based on bad policy choices. Please refrain from jingoistic phrases. I believe your more intelligent than that.

Yep, you are a 24 year old kid without a college degree who served in the Army Reserves and wrote a blog.
Now, you recite left-wing (Democrat Party) talking points and suddenly have become an expert in foreign policy and political science.
I suggest you finish your degree at Northridge, finish Graduate School and join the Foreign Service`.
But, back to the issue at hand: Tom McClintock. What qualities do you not find appealing?

A more current Blog posted yesterday:

From a Marine Corps Major in Baghdad:

"A thought from Iraq - "Doom & Gloom about Iraq's future....I don't see it from where I'm sitting."

[For those of you who haven't gotten my "Thoughts" before, I'm a Major in the USMC on the Multi-National Corps staff in Baghdad. The analysts and pundits who don't see what I see on a daily basis, in my opinion, have very little credibility to talk about the situation - especially if they have yet to set foot in Iraq. Everything Americans believe about Iraq is simply perception filtered through one's latent prejudices until you are face-to-face with reality. If you haven't seen, or don't remember, the John Wayne movie, The Green Berets , you should watch it this weekend. Pay special attention to the character of the reporter, Mr. Beckwith (the Journalist in the movie) . His characters experience is directly related to the situation here. You'll have a different perspective on Iraq after the movie is over.]

The US media is abuzz today with the news of an intelligence report that is very negative about the prospects for Iraq's future. CNN's website says, "[The] National Intelligence Estimate was sent to the White House in July with a classified warning predicting the best case for Iraq was 'tenuous stability' and the worst case was civil war." That report, along with the car bombings and kidnappings in Baghdad in the past couple days are being portrayed in the media as more proof of absolute chaos and the intransigence of the insurgency.

From where I sit, at the Operational Headquarters in Baghdad, that just isn't the case. Let's lay out some background, first about the "National Intelligence Estimate." The most glaring issue with its relevance is the fact that it was delivered to the White House in July . That means that the information that was used to derive the intelligence was gathered in the Spring - in the immediate aftermath of the April battle for Fallujah, and other events. The report doesn't cover what has happened in July or August, let alone September.

The naysayers will point to the recent battles in Najaf and draw parallels between that and what happened in Fallujah in April. They aren't even close. The bad guys did us a HUGE favor by gathering together in one place and trying to make a stand. It allowed us to focus on them and defeat them. Make no mistake, Al Sadr's troops were thoroughly smashed. The estimated enemy killed in action is huge. Before the battles, the residents of the city were afraid to walk the streets. Al Sadr's enforcers would seize people and bring them to his Islamic court where sentence was passed for religious or other violations. Long before the battles people were looking for their lost loved ones who had been taken to "court" and never seen again. Now Najafians can and do walk their streets in safety. Commerce has returned and the city is being rebuilt. Iraqi security forces and US troops are welcomed and smiled upon. That city was liberated again. It was not like Fallujah - the bad guys lost and are in hiding or dead.

You may not have even heard about the city of Samarra. Two weeks ago, that Sunni Triangle city was a "No-go" area for US troops. But guess what? The locals got sick of living in fear from the insurgents and foreign fighters that were there and let them know they weren't welcome. They stopped hosting them in their houses and the mayor of the town brokered a deal with the US commander to return Iraqi government sovereignty to the city without a fight. The people saw what was on the horizon and decided they didn't want their city looking like Fallujah in April or Najaf in August.

Boom, boom, just like that two major "hot spots" cool down in rapid succession. Does that mean that those towns are completely pacified? No. What it does mean is that we are learning how to do this the right way. The US commander in Samarra saw an opportunity and took it - probably the biggest victory of his military career and nary a shot was fired in anger. Things will still happen in those cities, and you can be sure that the bad guys really want to take them back. Those achievements, more than anything else in my opinion, account for the surge in violence in recent days - especially the violence directed at Iraqis by the insurgents. Both in Najaf and Samarra ordinary people stepped out and took sides with the Iraqi government against the insurgents, and the bad guys are hopping mad. They are trying to instill fear once again. The worst thing we could do now is pull back and let that scum back into people's homes and lives.

So, you may hear analysts and prognosticators on CNN, ABC and the like in the next few days talking about how bleak the situation is here in Iraq, but from where I sit, it's looking significantly better now than when I got here. The momentum is moving in our favor, and all Americans need to know that, so please, please, pass this on to those who care and will pass it on to others. It is very demoralizing for us here in uniform to read & hear such negativity in our press. It is fodder for our enemies to use against us and against the vast majority of Iraqis who want their new government to succeed. It causes the American public to start thinking about the acceptability of "cutting our losses" and pulling out, which would be devastating for Iraq for generations to come, and Muslim militants would claim a huge victory, causing us to have to continue to fight them elsewhere (remember, in war "Away" games are always preferable to "Home" games). Reports like that also cause Iraqis begin to fear that we will pull out before we finish the job, and thus less willing to openly support their interim government and US/Coalition activities. We are realizing significant progress here - not propaganda progress, but real strides are being made. It's terrible to see our national morale, and support for what we're doing here, jeopardized by sensationalized stories hyped by media giants whose #1 priority is advertising income followed closely by their political agenda; getting the story straight falls much further down on their priority scale, as Dan Rather and CBS News have so aptly demonstrated in the last week.

Thanks for listening. Feedback is always welcome, though I can't promise an immediate response...."

I agree with many of the Marines points. However they do not mitigate the policy failures I described. I in no way said the situation was unwinnable, so please spare me the left wing talking points comment. I voiced these sentiments while in Iraq long before the Democratic Party had anything figured out (not that they have made much progress lately).

Relax on the immature comments especially given the fact that your older than me. I, just like you am in no way a expert in foreign policy, but I unlike you did serve in Iraq.

So, because I am better educated and have more life experience than you, I cannot express an opinion on U.S. foreign policy because I did not go to Iraq?

Please...give me a break! I hope you can argue better than that!

The next thing you will say is that I do not understand because I am a Christian and not a Muslim, like you!

Ok, enough of the silly stuff...back to McClintock! You haven't answered my questions.

Are you a bigot or just blabbering?

Good Grief....nothing but ad hominem.

Ok, I tried to get some educated arguments out of you!

But, I failed....end of thread for me!

Dang!...we were just starting to have fun!