There are more and more good stories coming from Iraq in recent weeks…stories that have to give us all hope that as the Surge continues to work - we can see additional US troops return home. Iraqi Army units are learning their jobs with Coalition assistance and one of the more important factors in this equation….the Iraqi people are starting to see, feel and taste what real freedom is all about and….they are helping rid their neighborhoods of terrorists.

CAMP LIBERTY, Iraq , Nov. 1, 2007 – Soldiers from 1st Battalion, 5th Cavalry Regiment, 2nd Brigade Combat Team, 1st Cavalry Division, hosted a social gathering, including a cookout and a soccer tournament, for Iraqi army troops and a volunteer group from Ameriya, a neighborhood in the Mansour district of western Baghdad on Oct. 28.

“Today is a chance for us to get together with our partners in Ameriya,” said Huntsville, Ala., native Army Lt. Col. Dale Kuehl, commander of 1-5 Cav. His unit operates in Ameriya attached to 2nd Brigade Combat Team, 1st Infantry Division.

Those partners include 2nd Battalion, 1st Brigade, 6th Division Iraqi Army, and the Forsan Al Rafadeen, which in Arabic means “knights of the river.” FAR is a group of local volunteers who have come forward to work with security forces to provide safer conditions in Ameriya, Kuehl added.

“Ameriya was a battlefield for most of the summer,” Kuehl said. “At this time, al Qaeda is defeated. We thought it was a good time to recognize that and get together and have a good time.”

With three games in the morning, the soccer tournament was the main activity of the gathering. The 1-5 Cav. team played hard, but ended up being overtaken by both the Iraqi army team, 2-1, and the FAR team, 5-1. In the end, the FAR players were able to beat the Iraqi army team 2-0.

While the round-robin tournament did have a competitive edge to it, most participants just seemed to want to have fun. “We came to enjoy ourselves and play a game, not to win,” said Iraqi army Maj. Emad Kareen, commander of Company A, 2nd Battalion, 1st Brigade, 6th Iraqi Army Division, and their team coach. “Playing sports helps to build relationships in the field.”

After the soccer tournament, trophies were handed out, and the Iraqis were then invited to the East Logistics Support Area mayor cell to join the cavalry troops in a cookout.

Being able to play a friendly game of soccer and eat steak and burgers with the Iraqis from Ameriya is quite a change from last year, when 1-5 Cav. was just getting here. “We just didn’t have that close of a relationship with the community,” Kuehl said. “Now we do, and I think that’s a sign of progress not just for us, but for all of Baghdad.”

One reason for this success in Ameriya seems to be the importance that 1-5 Cav. has placed on developing working relationships with the Iraqi army and the residents of Ameriya.

“Here, it’s not so much how many doors you knock down, but how many neighbors you are able to end up with at the end of the day,” said Bakersfield, Calif. native Army Command Sgt. Maj. Fidel Gomez, the unit’s senior noncommissioned officer.

Much has changed in Ameriya since FAR volunteers began working with coalition and Iraqi forces, Saad Abo Abid, the FAR commander said.

With enhanced security in the area, he said businesses are beginning to re-open, improving the economic future of the area,

(From a Multinational Corps Iraq news release.)

Army Lt. Col. Dale Kuehl, commander of the 1st Battalion, 5th Cavalry Regiment, presents the first-place trophy to Rafeid Khaleiel, the coach of the Forsan Al Rafadeen soccer team at the end of a soccer tournament hosted by his unit at Camp Liberty in western Baghdad Oct. 28, 2007. Photo by Pfc. April Campbell, USA

Army Lt. Col. Dale Kuehl, commander of the 1st Battalion, 5th Cavalry Regiment, presents Iraqi army Lt. Col. Wail Mohamed Hussain, commander of the 2nd Battalion, 1st Brigade, 6th Iraqi Army Division, with a gift in appreciation of their cooperation in the Ameriya neighborhood of Baghdad’s Al Mansour District at the end of a soccer tournament at Camp Liberty, Iraq, Oct. 28, 2007. Photo by Pfc. April Campbell, USA
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A member of the 2nd Battalion, 1st Brigade, 6th Iraqi Army Division’s soccer team (in blue), tries to block the 1st Battalion, 5th Cavalry Regiment team from getting the soccer ball during a tournament at Camp Liberty, Iraq, Oct. 28, 2007. Photo by Pfc. April Campbell, USA