Talked with a senior officer/aviator fresh from Iraq. He pointed out how much of a terrible job the media is doing over there. I can't type out the millions of details he focused on but a key note would be the number of troops in hotspots such as Mosul and Fallujah. Approx. 5,000 troops in each city. Where are the other 120,000+ troops? Off rebuilding the entire nation from the ground up. But guess where the cameras are?

Mentioned how every civilian he has met has thanked him and that even though there are a few bad apples, almost everyone can agree that they live in a much better environment now. He also gets at least one e-mail a week from Iraqi friends on the positive progress.

I have even underestimated the progress of Iraq until this particular talk.