2 posts tagged “blog”

We knew that this time would arrive and while we are excited to return home, we must thank each and every one of you for your support over the past year.  A very special "THANK YOU!!" to the guys and gals at VOX for assisting us during the initial stages and we definitely could not have done it without them!  When we first started this blog, they understood the complications of our internet connectivity here and kept in touch with us to ensure that everything was running smooth. 

We hope that this site brought some newsworthy information, but if you want to keep up with the news here in Fallujah, Regimental Combat Team 1 has started their own VOX blog.  They have already posted a few articles and we encourage you to give them a look and once in a while, give them a shout.

We decided to post a picture of the crew that has brought you the Fightin' 6th blog. 

Fightin' 6th Crew

J.D. Johannes of http://www.outsidethewire.com recently posted an entry about the tribal awakening we've talked about here a few times. You can read the whole thing here. I've excerpted a bit of it below.

The village of Shiabi, located south-west of Kharmah, below the Kharma river is home to more than a dozen IP officers who work in Fallujah.

In November and December of 2006, as the Iraqi Army let the situation deteriorate in Kharma, AQIZ went on blood spree, kidnapping, torturing and beheading police officers.

It was about this time that General Sadoon, a retired Iraqi Air Force general who lived in Fallujah but whose home village is Shiabi and who is also the grandson of the true Sheik of the Jumayli tribe, organized the men of the village.

The Fallujah IPs gave them rifles, walkie talkies and ammunition.

The General put the men in fighting positions around the village and set up two check points.

Word spread quickly about the village that was standing up to Al Qaeda.  Representatives from the Islamic State of Iraq met with the General to try to convince him to change his ways or scare him off.

"I met with them in December," the General said, his eyes hidden by Ray Ban sunglasses, a duty belt around his waist with radios clipped to it.

Al Qaeda told the police officers of Shihabi and General Sadoon to support Al Qaeda and undermine the IP and the coalition or face the consequences.

The police officers and Sadoon decided to face the consequnces and fortified their village.  

"They had no future," the General said,  "All that Al Qaeda has to offer is death.  So I told them I will opp[o]se them and from then on, it has been war."

Go read and enjoy. J.D. is here for a few more days so if you've got any comments or anything for him drop them in the comments section here and I'll deliver them myself to him. He's done a lot of great work out here as far as spreading the word about what's really going on. J.D. doesn't sugarcoat things. He definitely calls a spade a spade. You can read the good and the bad.