The ranks of men and women sworn to defend a democratic Iraq continue to grow. The regular Iraqi Army gained over 1,700 graduates, one class destined to serve in the 5th Division and the other — including a small group of medical specialists — in the 8th Brigade. The Army's counterinsurgency arm, the Iraqi Intervention Force or IIF, gained nearly 700 graduates. As a testament to Iraq's self-reliance, most recently seen in the scaling-down of a NATO training deployment, the Iraqi Navy opened the doors of a Non-Commissioned Officer school in the southern port city of Umm Qasr.
Iraq's defenders found another edge on their authoritarian enemies with two materiel gifts from the United States: a trio of C-130s and a pair of light reconnaissance aircraft.
Meanwhile, Chester was so inspired by a soldier's plea for honest reporting that he hopes to begin a series of firsthand military accounts, along the lines of Frank J.'s now-defunct Front Line Voices. Here's to success.