Originally Posted by zacman

I have had the "pleasure" of spending vast amounts of time between the Tigris and Euphrates, 03-04 and 05-06.. and the amount of good and the level of progression that has been accomplished during my tours and inbetween my tours has been amazing.. for our military and the people of Iraq... I spent both my tours operating in about the same battle space, and the quality of life for the iraqi people had improved great lengths from when we initially arrived unitl we handed off control of that AO, and then when I returned 16 months later, i could hardly recongnize the area due to the vast improvement of the quality of life that developed in that short time.. Markets were open, people in the streets, festivals, Iraqi police were operating at an almost self functioning level.. (if you've been... you know what i mean)