Unofficialbmw.com

[TnSlim]

I guess it should say “Left Iraq.” I’m in Kuwait now, at Ali Al Salem Airbase, waiting for my flight to the USA.

It was a tough decision but I turned down my company’s latest contract extension offer. I have health concerns and I need to start having regular access to western medical care and western living conditions before the effects become irreversible.

It occurs to me that leaving like this gives credibility to those who’ve said I’ve done this for nothing apart from the money. The truth is there have been many others, civilian and military, who’ve given so much more. One of my coworkers on Camp Fallujah, for instance, died last November in the same facility I’d worked in a few months earlier, the result of a rare direct hit from a Katousha.

When military members would ask me how long I was planning to stay, my pat answer was “Until you find bin Laden.” I wish I could have held out that long. I’ve been working exclusively with Marines since I moved to Fallujah in 2005 and they’ve struck a special chord with this old Cavalry puke. I enjoyed working with them more than I could have imagined. And God, Chesty Puller and R. Lee Ermey know they need my help.

Monty was killed after 30 months in-country. He was my company’s first combat-related death in Iraq and I took that as a sign and decided that the current contract, which ends with my 31st month in-country, was long enough.

I plan to find other work in antiterrorism but to do it some place else. I hope never to come back to Iraq. Iran, on the other hand, ....

[Henry]

Hint: Look someplace else for him.


From Wikipedia...

"By December 17, the last cave complex had been taken and their defenders overrun. They did not find any massive “underground fortresses”, only small bunkers and outposts and a few minor training camps [1].
A search of the area by U.S. forces continued into January, but no sign of bin Laden or the al-Qaeda leadership emerged. Former CIA officer Gary Berntsen, who led the CIA team in Afghanistan that was tasked with locating Osama bin Laden, claims in his 2005 book Jawbreaker that he and his team had pinpointed the location of Osama bin Laden. Also according to Berntsen, a number of al-Qaeda detainees later confirmed that bin Laden had escaped Tora Bora into Pakistan via an easterly route through snow covered mountains in the area of Parachinar, Pakistan. He also claims that bin Laden could have been captured if United States Central Command had committed the troops that Berntsen had requested. Former CIA agent Gary Schroen concurs with this view [2]. Pentagon documents [3] seem to confirm this account."


And


U.S. Concludes Bin Laden Escaped at Tora Bora Fight
Failure to Send Troops in Pursuit Termed Major Error
By Barton Gellman and Thomas E. Ricks
Washington Post Staff Writers
Wednesday, April 17, 2002; Page A01


The Bush administration has concluded that Osama bin Laden was present during the battle for Tora Bora late last year and that failure to commit U.S. ground troops to hunt him was its gravest error in the war against al Qaeda, according to civilian and military officials with first-hand knowledge.

Intelligence officials have assembled what they believe to be decisive evidence, from contemporary and subsequent interrogations and intercepted communications, that bin Laden began the battle of Tora Bora inside the cave complex along Afghanistan's mountainous eastern border. Though there remains a remote chance that he died there, the intelligence community is persuaded that bin Laden slipped away in the first 10 days of December.


After-action reviews, conducted privately inside and outside the military chain of command, describe the episode as a significant defeat for the United States. A common view among those interviewed outside the U.S. Central Command is that Army Gen. Tommy R. Franks, the war's operational commander, misjudged the interests of putative Afghan allies and let pass the best chance to capture or kill al Qaeda's leader. Without professing second thoughts about Tora Bora, Franks has changed his approach fundamentally in subsequent battles, using Americans on the ground as first-line combat units.

[Henry]

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/05/28/AR2007052800080.html?hpid=topnews



U.S., Iran Meet to Discuss Iraq Security
By John Ward Anderson
Washington Post Foreign Service
Monday, May 28, 2007; 11:00 AM


BAGHDAD, May 28 -- U.S. and Iranian diplomats met Monday in formal, bilateral talks for the first time in more than a quarter century and agreed in general terms on the advances they would like to see to restore stability to this fractured country, where both have vital interests, the U.S. envoy reported.


And later in the day...


http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/05/28/AR2007052800080.html?hpid%3Dtopnews&sub=AR



U.S., Iran Talks on Iraq May Be First of Many
By John Ward Anderson
Washington Post Foreign Service
Tuesday, May 29, 2007; Page A01


BAGHDAD, May 28 -- The United States and Iran held their first official high-level, face-to-face talks in almost 30 years on Monday to discuss the deteriorating security situation in Iraq, and officials emerged generally upbeat about the renewed dialogue, suggesting additional meetings were likely.





Welcome back. Sincere best wishes for improved health. (and) Hope you aren't too upset with the posts...but they do speak to your ideals and beliefs and I don't know if you're aware of the development. For better or worse only time will tell.

[panzerkeil302]

who cares why you did it...money or not - doesn't matter.

welcome home, and take care of your health, that's all that matters.

[Henry]

posting error h.

[TnSlim]

Henry, I know where they're looking for UBL ...that's part of what I do. Whether that bears any relation to where he actually is, ...well, ...time will tell.

[Henry]

Good hunting. And thanks for all you've done. I live 1.5 miles from the WTC. Every time I leave my house, walk 75 feet down the block to the Avenue and look to the south...there's a hole in the sky. Even though I have questions we do agree on the fundamentals.

Get the care you need and be well.

[tncean]

Whom was it that wrote "Only the dead shall no more see war."?

Written a couple of thousand years ago, I think. Probably a misquote, but still pertinent to mankind, I think. Smart bunch of f*ckers, aren't we? Disagree with a neighbor, just go kill 'em.

tncean