I was quite surprised to hear on NPR yesterday a report on the PM's visit to Ramadi and how he was met by some sheiks. The drift of the report was quite positive and I was pleased to hear NPR saying something favorable. The report said the Sheiks seemed relaxed and smiled on occasion and presented the PM with petitions for more services and security. General P. was there with the PM too and some of what he said was broadcast. In one take, he was discussing the situation with a Ramadi citizen and in essence told the man that "with his help" things would get better. As a civilian who pays alot of taxes, I can live with an 'armed peace corps' concept of reconstruction and stabalization. It makes sense as long as the *$%^(#* politicians stay the he** out of it and let the military do their thing. I still advocate a Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) model as part of the solution, where unemployed young men are put to work cleaning up rubble doing heavy manual labor for good pay. If they can provide for their families and be tired from doing heavy work at the end of the day, they will be less inclined to set off IEDs. I fail to see why some company commander somewhere can't be given some cash and be told to put some Iraqis to work simply to see how things pan out. Officers and NCOs supervise work details all the time but I realize big ideas and implimenting them are two different things.