What will a "surge" mean for the Minnesota National Guard in Iraq?

Tonight President Bush is expected to announce an immediate "surge" in the number of American soldiers in Iraq by at least 20,000. Unfortunately there aren't 20,000 uncommitted soldiers available to head to Iraq at the drop of a hat. That means to accomplish this surge, troops that are currently scheduled to rotate home are probably going to have their tours extended so that the troops that were supposed to replace them can be redeployed to wherever forces are going to be increased (primarily Baghdad it sounds like).

My prediction is that the 2,600 members of the Minnesota Army National Guard currently scheduled to return from Iraq in March are going to have their tours extended by 90+ days. Expect the announcement in the next week.

You heard it here first.

Surprising reactions to my mission

As friends and co-workers at my day job start to become aware of what I'm doing, I'm getting the expected range of reactions, but not always from the expected people. Here are the three main types of reactions:

1. Strong negative response: You are totally nuts! What are you thinking? Don't do it.

2. Reserved curiosity: I want to know more, but I'm not going to express any opinions to your face.

3. Enthusiastic support: That is so cool! I want to go too!

So here is the interesting part: The strongest negative responses have come from people I think of as adventurous (international travelers and "devil may care" party people). The strongest positive responses have come from people that I would described as cautious and put together (good dressers who I think of as very responsible).

UPDATE: As the sample size gets larger my initial observations are breaking down. It really seems pretty random who is supportive, and who isn't. I continue to be surprised by the responses I'm getting, positive and negative.

Note: There is definitely NOT a clear liberal vs. conservative divide on people's opinions with regard to my mission.

My Journalism Standards and Style

I thought it would make sense to write a series of posts about my views (see the my previous My Politics post) and the standards I will be holding myself to while writing about and shooting photos in Iraq.

Photojournalism:

You can trust that any photos that I post from Iraq will be "as shot" images of real events. This means that photos will not be altered in Photoshop, and that I have not created or altered the scenes being photographed in any way.

Exceptions to this would be obviously posed portraits, and still life photo illustrations of objects which have been arrange by me for composition purposes.

Writing style (commentary vs. news reporting):

In general when it comes to writing I would describe myself as more of a commentator at heart, than a reporter. I have feelings and opinions, I'm inclined to express them, and I hope that my perspective helps inform your opinions.

On this trip to Iraq I will be doing some of each: factual news reporting, and commentary on the events of the day with my experiences and opinions included. If I'm including my opinion it will be clearly noted, and I will speak in the first person. If an article doesn't include a first person account of myself, you can assume that I'm making every effort to give an unbiased account of events as I observed them.

My writing style:

I've never been a big fan of pesky details like grammar and punctuation. I never graduated from high school, largely because I failed English. I welcome you editorial corrections, just add a comment to the offending post (we're all a team here). Thanks!

My politics, and why you should "support the troops"

Many of my friends and neighbors are Birkenstock wearing, vegetarian, llama farming, pro choice, hemp wearing, tie died, politically active liberals who think that the war in Iraq is fundamentally evil. Some of them also feel that my current mission is by association inherently pro war and pro Bush administration.

I live in the heart of the Minnesota 5th congressional district which just elected Keith Ellison, the first Muslim member of congress. Personally, I don't think it matters at all whether Keith is Muslim or a Martian, but it seems to have become a bit of a polarizing issue nationally, and so it seems relevant to mention so that you understand the environment I live in. Personally, I'm just counting on him to do his best to work to come up with practical solutions to the difficult problems of our day.

I have another (smaller) group of friends who proudly put out lonely Republican lawn signs in our staunchly Democratic city. They are proud to have voted for the president, and probably would be happy to do it again if it weren't for term limits. They still believe that the war in Iraq was the right thing to do, and the phrase "stay the course" resonates with them. They see what I'm doing as "patriotic".

Personally, I like to describe myself as an independent and a moderate, which is actually a fairly popular affiliation here in Minnesota, the state that elected Jesse Ventura governor. Before you all start to feel stereotyped: I'm sure many of you fit in this category as well, you just don't tend to speak up about your views.

I like to think that my views are nuanced, well reasoned, and insightful. I would have to say that I have a foot in both camps. On the one hand I strongly disagreed with the decision to go to war in Iraq, but I also agree with the Iraq doctrine attributed to Colin Powell which says "You break it, you own it.", and I would definitely oppose a sudden unilateral withdrawal of American troops from Iraq.

The decision to go to war in Iraq is history, and now for better or worse we own the place, and it's our responsibility to fix it. Currently we have given that job to 130,000 American soldiers. For the moment I'm going to ignore the question of whether or not the current policy is valid or working, and just focus on the fact that we as a country have asked 130,000 American men and women to do unthinkable tasks at extreme personal cost on our behalf.

These soldiers are solving OUR problem. As American citizens, like it or not, we have responsibility for the outcome in Iraq. If your child broke the neighbors window would you take responsibility as a parent, and make sure it got fixed? I hope so. And from my perspective we as Americans have a similar responsibility to fix Iraq.

This responsibility is two fold in my opinion: 1) We vote for elected officials who are going to be responsible for make decisions on how to fix it, and then we have to opportunity to lobby them and let them now our personal views on the problem. 2) We need to give ALL possible support to the men and woman who are currently on the ground working to fix the problem every day in Iraq. They are doing a tough job on our behalf, and they deserve our best.

I can't predict what will happen next with regard to Iraq policy, but it seems fairly likely that there will be American soldiers in harms way in Iraq for years to come. They are there on the behalf of all American citizens, whether you agree with the policy or not. Regardless of whether you support the policy or not, you can still support the skills, character, and dedication of our soldiers in the field. They didn't ask to go there, they just volunteered to give their all to do whatever their country asks of them.

Press Release: Independent Photojournalist visiting Minnesota troops in Iraq at his own expense

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Eric Bowen is a Minneapolis based photojournalist, who will be traveling to Iraq for two weeks in February 2007 to cover Minnesota Army National Guard soldiers deployed in the Fallujah area. Eric is a former Minnesota Army National Guard soldier who's personal mission is to highlight the Minnesota Guard role in the Iraq War, and provide more hometown coverage of Guard soldiers.

Eric will be embedded with Bravo Company 2/136 which is part of the Minnesota headquartered 34th Infantry Division. Eric will riding along on combat patrols to photograph soldiers in action, as well as photographing soldiers day to day life on base at Camp Fallujah.

Eric is undertaking this trip at his own expense out of a personal interest in the Minnesota Army National Guard, and a desire to provide independent citizen journalist coverage of the war in Iraq. Eric would welcome financial participation from additional media organizations, and outright donations from individuals interested in supporting this sort of in-depth personal coverage of our troops.

Eric is officially affiliated with the Crookston Daily Times on this mission, and will be highlighting Crookston area soldiers. However, Eric is also planning to file photos and stories with other interested Minnesota news organizations.

Eric will be writing a daily column for the two week duration of this trip, in addition to daily news photos, and producing a number of feature stories and photo essays. Please contact Eric if you are interested in being included in this coverage, or would like more information about his mission.

UPDATE: Eric is now also affiliated with KSTP Channel 5 Eyewitness News, and will be supplying a daily video feed that will appear on KSTP, and possibly other Minnesota ABC stations.

Mission dates: February 5 -21

Eric Bowen
http://ericiniraq.blogspot.com
eric.bowen(at)gmail.com
612.868.9492 cell
775.415.0076 fax
011-8816-4144-4676 satellite phone in Iraq (the leading 011 only applies if you are dialing from the US)

Iraq update: We're almost there

I've "gone dark" over the past month, waiting for solid news, but I'm sure my (two) readers are dying for an update, so here are a few more details:

It's looks like I'll be departing Minneapolis on February 6th and returning on February 20th. With travel time and bureaucracy this means about one week of actual embed time in the field.

I will be embedding with Bravo Company 2/136 Infantry, part or the 1st Brigade Combat Team of the 34th "Red Bull" Division (Minnesota Army National Guard). This unit is based in Crookston and Thief River Falls, Minnesota, and I am official credentialed as a journalist for the Crookston Daily Times. I will also be filing with a variety of other local newspapers and a couple of military magazines.

At this point I have all my paperwork filed with the Combined Press Information Center (CPIC) in Iraq, and I'm waiting for my orders to get cut... hopefully I'll be 100% confirmed in the next several days...

Iraq update: I'm credentialed!

As of today I have TWO news organizations that have agreed to credential me! I'm not going to name them until the deal is finalized, but it looks it's all going to fly!

So now the real work begins:
* I need to work out the logistics of what unit I'm going to embed with, and the dates I can actually go.
* Travel arrangements to Kuwait City.
* Purchase/rent equipment.
* I'm sure the list is endless...

I'll keep you posted!