Yesterday our company leadership threw us a barbecue for Independence Day. A band from division showed up to play rock, country, and pop hits ranging from "She Think's my Tractor's Sexy" by Kenny Chesney to "Proud Mary" by Tina Turner. It gave a festive atmosphere to a usually focused hangar. The work continued around those of us who took a break to remember Independence Day. SFC McCreary performed Grill Sergeant duties while Chief McGrath and I took on all comers at washers.

We invited a few Iraqis with to join us. Somehow I was tasked with explaining to the Iraqis that we were eating beef and not pork. It took some hilarious hand gestures and some barnyard noises, but we managed to get the point across and the guys got a good laugh at my attempt at communication. We also did the best we could to explain to them that this was a celebration of America's Independence and how Iraqis should feel the same way about their recent Sovereignty Day (http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/in_pictures/8125857.stm). Now that our forces have left the cities in accordance with the status of forces agreement, the Iraqis must truly sink or swim together.

I'm reminded of Benjamin Franklin's 18th century political cartoon which you can see to the right. Franklin was saying that the colonies must join together and survive or remain separated and fail. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Join,_or_Die) For the first time since this war began, it's now a totally Iraqi run operation. It's their time to "join or die". The Iraqi Army has had some recent successes in cities like Basrah. From the Times of London:

British forces stood aside during the “charge of the knights” in Basra when Iraqi forces swooped into Iraq’s second city, supposedly in our area of occupation. While our commander was off on a skiing holiday, government forces eventually beat the militias with American help.

Let's hope they can maintain that momentum.