Plastictowel, being on the front lines is the only way to insure that innocent people are not being killed. I can say with some certainty that your blogs are not doing much to prevent anything. Having rational soldiers behind the trigger prevents unnecessary civilian causalities. As for combatants, not too much we can do for them. We are the ones that understand the culture, sympathize with the locals, and know that not all are bad. There are very clear distinctions between, Sunni, Shia, Kurd, SOI, Naq Shibani, Jaburi, JAM, JAMSG, etc. A christian fundie soldier thinks he is in a Holy War. I am right there with him explaining that the locals hate Al Qaeda just as much as we do, but they are scared. So that is why they are not telling us where they are. Not cause they are sympathizers. The world is a lot more complicated and I have chosen to participate. I don't have to speculate about anything or rely on FOX news or CNN to tell me what is going on.