marshall adame

If I had to use one word to describe my three year experience in Iraq, one word which could say how I feel without discounting or dismissing the good things I personally saw and experienced, that word would be DISHEARTENING.

Unlike many Americans in Iraq, my experiences there brought me close up and personal to the Iraqis and their day to day lives. I worked with them and I lived among them in the red zone of Baghdad. As the V.P. of Aviation and marketing for the Sandi Group, a DC based Iraqi-American Corporation, I live on one of the city blocks in the middle of Baghdads Red District, away from the Green Zone and the protection of U.S. Forces. Those assigned to protect me were Iraqi, mostly Kurds from the Northern region of Iraq.

Every day as I traveled throughout Baghdad in the course of my work, it was Iraqi body guards who saw to my safety. We did not have armored cars, or soldiers to accompany us, as I would have later, being appointed into a U.S. Diplomatic mission in Baghdad. I trusted my Iraqi guards and befriended them. They never betrayed that trust. On more than one occasion, while on ambush alley in Baghdad, those Iraqi guards would cover me with their own bodies to ensure my safety when snipers opened up on our cars.

In the short time I have been a member here at BlueNC, I have noted from time to time writers who, when discussing Walter Jones, talk about him as though he were a Democrat in Republican clothing. Nothing could be farther from the truth. I just took a sampling of his record for your edification.

IS CONGRESSMAN WALTER JONES A GOOD “BUSH” REPUBLICAN?
YOU BETTER BELIEVE IT!

Rep. Jones voted against cracking down on the oil and gas industries price gouging.

Big oil and gas industries have given Rep. Jones $65,408.
Rep. Jones voted to strip overtime protection from millions of workers.

Big drug interests have given $30,635 to Jones over the Representative's career. They know who their friends are.
Jones has taken $1,000 from House Majority Leader John Boehner (.John Boehner actually handed out checks from the tobacco industry on the floor of the US Congress).

In my diary ranking the potential pick up opportunities in North Carolina I ranked NC-03 as #3, a second tier pickup opportunity. There were more than a few people who asked for more information so I thought I should oblige.

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Four Years Ago I arrived in Iraq. I left Three Years Later, Different

Today, March 19, 2007, marks the 4th anniversary of the U.S. Invasion of Iraq.

Two months from now four years ago I was driving across the Southern border of Iraq on my way to assume the position as the CPA Airport Director of Basrah International Airport. It was an electric time. From my perspective, America and several other countries had just liberated a people form a tyrannical dictator who had spent the past three decades repressing and killing them.

In Basrah, Iraq the people welcomed the presence of the Coalition soldiers and came into the streets waving and cheering the newly arrived liberation army. That willingness to embrace their liberators did not last long.

Within a few months of our arrival the population of Iraq began to be disillusioned by our occupation and openly began to resist our efforts to direct their future. Within a year, that disillusionment would become an insurgency.

All of you know about Marshall, since he has been posting her for a few weeks. In the past couple of days he has begun posting at dailykos, but, like any new diarist, he is not widely read.

I am by no means a known figure on dailykos, but I know I have a few (if only 2 or 3) regular readers. I therefore wrote up this intro diary. I hope that all of you will help me get Marshall some attention.

And, I also hope that you will help give him reccomends and get him some attention later on.

Like I posted on kos, we are in a unique situation where we can help Marshall define his campaign. We can help him develop a message, develop a strategy, and help him win. Why would you pass a chance like that up?