"You can spot a good Sergeant a mile away."

Latest email from Major David G. Bellon, USMC. Here is an excerpt:

While you were gone, the effort here continued much the same. As you have no doubt seen, the violence has escalated as predicted but the average Iraqi actually appears to be more and more fed up with the acts of the insurgents. In our area, the viciousness and undisciplined nature of the enemy has caused them to fracture somewhat even to the point of fights breaking out between them.

In the last week, the Marines conducted a number of operations to include a raid on a particular mosque. The amount of planning that goes into a raid such as this is extensive. You would be amazed at how much we study the proper approach, not just tactically but culturally. Every effort is made not to overly offend those Iraqis who are not targets of the action itself. The second and third order of effects of missions are considered by the most talented and experienced operators and commanders. If I had to categorize the operation, I would say that without sacrificing speed and security, Marines are very vigilant about displaying the proper amount of "respect" in and around the target. I mention this because we absolutely 100% know that mosques are used to plan insurgent attacks, used as terrorists meeting places, used to store weapons, used to hide hostages, and used to spread hate and lies. Of course not all mosques are nefarious, but a significant percentage in the area where our Marines operate seem to be. Even with this in mind, as mentioned above, every effort is made during planning and execution not to trespass on the cultural importance of mosques. Once the mission is complete, additional efforts are made to explain to the locals what we did and why we did it.

During raid on this particular mosque, a large amount of enemy propaganda along with weapons and a detonator for an improvised explosive device was found among the suspected insurgents. The detonator belonged to an explosive charge that was placed in the ground approximately 250 meters from the mosque on the road leading up to it. The propaganda can be best categorized as hateful (believe it or not there were even hand bills about the Marine eating spiders).

I want to close by sharing with you that the coalition put a real hurt on the terrorists and criminals this week. I know it is horrifying to see the hostages killed on television but without being able to go into detail, the coalition has compromised and successfully attacked a number of senior terrorists this past week. While this is going on, the men are training new Iraqi soldiers and police officers and continuing to reach out to the people. The young Marines that are doing the work over here are committed young men who believe that they were doing the right thing. There were losses that are tragic. Losing Marines is a profoundly personal thing to their buddies and fellow Marines. However, I have yet to see the young men's will waiver. They just continue to go out their every day and do their job. Like I said before, it is humbling be around them.

Check out the entire letter here.