Michael Yon...Public Affairs: Baqubah Food

Public Affairs: Baqubah Food

Where is the "Main Stream" Media? Working on their next Bash Bush nonsense?

Story Sgt. Patrick Lair

Photos by PV2 Kirby Rider and Sgt. Patrick Lair

115^th

Mobile Public Affairs Detachment BAQUBAH, IRAQ— After the fight to retake an Iraqi city is over, the struggle to reconstruct a functioning government is the fist order of business.

That’s why U.S. and Iraqi forces were excited recently to witness local trucks arrive, accompanied by the Iraqi Army, at a Baqubah flour mill with 560 tons of imported wheat to feed the people of Diyala province.

“This is one more piece to the larger puzzle of providing normalcy here,” said Lt. Col. Fred Johnson, deputy commanding officer of the 3^rd Stryker Brigade Combat Team, 2^nd Infantry Division. “It’s probably the most important thing we’ve done.”

The grain, imported from the

U.S., will be milled, sacked and distributed to the local population as part of the Public Distribution System, an Iraqi program dating back to the 1980’s.

The program began during the Iraq-Iran War as a way for the government to provide necessities such as fuel, chai, sugar, flour, rice, tomatoes, soap and cooking oil to the people who need it. An estimated 45 percent of the people depend on these services.

When Al-Qaida took over Baqubah, the provincial capital, the distribution system largely collapsed. Truckers were afraid to haul the food, workers were afraid to show up to work, the mill closed and food prices soared, Johnson said.

Click the link above and read the rest. You won't read of it in the NYSlimes or the Washington Compost.