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By Jeff Emanuel Posted in embedded reporting | Iraq | Media | War — Comments (24) / Email this page » / Leave a comment »

Jeff is going to need your help to get to Iraq. He can't do it without you. Please consider a contribution to his efforts. --Erick

America has been at war, in combat, or rebuilding in Iraq for nearly 4 1/2 years now, and we may be at or approaching the most crucial period in that span.

General Petraeus, commander of multinational forces in Iraq, will be testifying before Congress in September regarding the effectiveness to date of his counterinsurgency and security strategy, and the Congressional Democrats have already predetermined what his testimony will be and what it will mean -- and, as a result, the majority party in both houses of Congress is (and has been) ready to declare defeat at the earliest possible moment in Iraq, to leave the middle east in chaos (and abandon innocent civilians to the slaughter), and to allow al Qaeda to be victorious in what they claim is the central front in the war on terror, all for the sole purpose of staining the President's hands with blood and thereby profiting politically from the situation.

Read on . . .

The majority of the American people seem to have little understanding of the situation in Iraq itself - let alone its complexity - and are so fatigued of the bodycount journalism they are presented with day in and day out that many are simply tuning the entire Iraq war out, preferring ignorance and future consequences to being oversaturated with one-sided, often inaccurate coverage.

Something must be done about this. The news from the battlefront in Iraq must make it back to the American people, so that they can make use of it to make more informed decisions - based on all the facts - on the war, the future of Iraq and its people, and the future of America in the middle east and the world.

To that end, I will be returning to the front to gather and transmit all of the information I possibly can. It is my goal to help ensure that the American people at least have an opportunity to see, hear, and read about what is really going on in Iraq at such a high-profile time.

My trip to Iraq is now set to begin at the end of this month, and to extend to the beginning of October. I will be serving right next to American soldiers, sailors, airmen, and Marines on the front lines in that country, reporting on them and their actions, and on the Iraqis and theirs.

I will spend time in Anbar, finally seeing the Awakening with my own eyes. I will spend time in Diyala, where the largest offensive since 2003 - Operation Arrowhead Ripper - is currently ongoing against al Qaeda in that stronghold of theirs. I will spend time in "the other Iraq," known also as Kurdistan. And I will, of course, spend time in Baghdad -- including back in Doura, with the unit I covered in April and May, the 1-4 CAV.

Further, I will embed for a brief time with a Joint Special Operations Task Force (a rare opportunity for any journalist, and one I look forward to immensely, not least for the opportunity it presents to potentially see old friends).

Like last time, I will be transmitting dispatches, blog posts, articles, and editorials, as well as photographs and high-definition video (a capability which I wasn't able to utilize as much as I had hoped earlier this year).

Our soldiers are doing yeoman's work, day and night, and so many of their stories are not making it back to the people at home. Like before, I hope to do all that I can to change that, by presenting the facts and the stories as they are, both good and bad, positive and negative, because - like the DoD, who is gracious enough to allow motivated folks like me to embed with the soldiers - I not only believe that, on balance, the military will show itself in a positive light, but also (and more importantly), I believe that you at RedState, and the
American populace as a whole, deserve to have all of the information, from an eyewitness perspective.

As always, there is a catch. The RedState community is one of the finest anywhere, and every one of you was tremendous in your support of the April/May Iraq trip. In order to make this next trip happen, though, I need your help once again. $5,000 remain for my budget to be filled, and without that, I won't be able to do the job I feel so called to do, and to provide the service to you and to the American people that I feel it is so important to feel. Any and all help you are willing to provide would be greatly appreciated.

More information can be found by following this link. If you are interested in helping to support this effort, which is both costly and vital, please consider donating to the cause. Also, if you know people who would be interested either in donating or simply in learning more about Iraq from someone who is there on the ground and reporting in real-time, then please forward this (and the above link) to them.

Thank you for your support. I leave next Thursday, and will be reporting from the front lines in Iraq by early August.