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Its most certainly not easy serving in the U.S. military in the middle of Iraq, but sometimes a reminder of home makes it a little easier for the brave men and women stationed around the world.

For Army 1st Lt. Jessie Guajardo, Chick-fil-A is that reminder. In a direct Facebook message to the Founders Square location in northern Texas, the soldier explained that Chick-fil-A sauces would go a long way to make the Army-issued chicken a little tastier.

Ordering bottles of sauce is mostly out of the question because of refrigeration after opening, etc., he wrote in a Facebook post over the weekend.It was then that we thought of Chick Fil A individually packaged sauces. I took a shot in the dark and sent a Facebook message to the Chick Fil A Facebook page with a request.

And just two weeks after sending the message,Guajardo received quite the surprise in the mail: Two cases full of sauce one with Chick-fil-A and another with barbecue sauce.

I cant thank Chick Fil A enough for this seemingly small gesture that single handedly picked up the spirits of so many people, he wrote. Thank you Chick Fil A.

The northern Texas restaurant thanked the soldier for his kind words about his hometown Chick-fil-A and said they look forward to the day when he can walk into the fast-food joint himself.

Thank you for your service, Jessie Guajardo and for taking the time to write such kind words about your local Chick-fil-A, the restaurant wrote on Facebook. We hope you and your fellow soldiers enjoy the sauces and we look forward to your return home.

The sauce came just in time, too. As it turns out, the package was delivered on chicken tender day in the Armys dining hall.

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US troops in Iraq craving Chick-fil-A get quite the surprise in the mail - TheBlaze.com

Nearly a decade after being honorably discharged from the U.S. Marine Corps, John Gerula is still struggling to fit back into his hometown of Windber, Pennsylvania.

The now 33-year-old Iraq War veteran signed up for the Marines at the age of 18 -- two weeks after working as a first responder during the September 11 attacks. Gerula's first disaster call as a junior firefighter was to the crash of United Airlines Flight 93 in Shanksville, Pennsylvania.

John Gerula, 33, served in the U.S. Marine Corps for six years.

CBS News

"I was one of the first responders there. We were the first vehicle on the scene," Gerula told CBS News. "That actually pushed me to join the military. I graduated high school early to join the Marine Corps."

During his six years in the Marines, Gerula spent one year deployed in Iraq, served as part of a military intelligence unit and fought in "Operation Phantom Fury" -- the Second Battle of Fallujah, where U.S. troops fought against al Qaeda militants.

He survived numerous IED explosions.

"There were a lot of long, hot days in the sun and a lot of time off the Forward Operating Base," Gerula recalled.

When Gerula returned home in May 2007, he didn't think things would simply "go back to normal" -- but he never expected the transition to be as hard as it was.

He suffered from a traumatic brain injury and post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), which has caused added anxiety and stress for the veteran.

"It's tough trying to fit back into a society where veterans are having a hard time getting back in," Gerula said. "It's easy to put the uniform on, but it's very hard to get back in society when you have been doing that for so long."

To help work through his challenges, Gerula receives weekly counseling at a nearby VA facility.

"It's been hard. Coming back ... there's not much support when it comes to veterans," Gerula said. "It was tough in the beginning, but there are some groups out there now that are starting to help veterans."

One of those groups, Gerula says, is American Humane.

It's through the non-profit's new Shelter to Service program, which rescues homeless pets from shelters across the country and trains them to become service dogs for veterans, that Gerula met his new best friend: Oliver.

John Gerula, 33, and his new PTSD service dog, Oliver, meet for the first time.

American Humane

The one-and-a-half-year-old terrier mix was abandoned by his owner and rescued from a shelter in Colorado. After three months of training, the dog was finally able to meet his new owner for the first time last week.

"It was an emotional experience. Me and him clicked right away," Gerula said. "He started giving me hugs. We were a match the first minute I touched his leash."

On Friday, Gerula attended a day-long training with Oliver, where he practiced basic commands with the dog.

The dog is trained to keep spaces between Gerula and others, sense when his owner gets stressed and even retrieve any medication he may need.

"When he puts that vest on, he's all business," Gerula said. "He's hyper-vigilant. He looks around. He stays on my left side and he will not move unless I tell him."

John Gerula and his new PTSD service dog completed a day-long training on Friday, July 14.

American Humane

Amy McCullough, Ph.D., the national director of military of affairs at American Humane, recalls the day she recruited Oliver for the Shelter to Service program.

"He was standing there in his kennel, looking beautiful. He had been there for over two months with no one taking a look at him," McCullough told CBS News. "I brought him out. I met him. He was sweet, sensitive, so attuned to humans that he was the best candidate there."

It's not the breed of the dog that matters -- it's the temperament, McCullough explained.

And Oliver certainly has the right temperament for the job.

"He's very affectionate. Very loving. He loves to have attention. The attention has to be on him, and that's good, that keeps my attention on him," Gerula said. He described it as like having two different dogs: "Oliver the working dog and Oliver the play dog."

On Monday, Gerula took Oliver home to Windber, Pennsylvania, where he'll spend his days running around a one-acre yard, standing by Gerula's side as he works in his wood shop and volunteers at the local fire department.

John Gerula, 33, pets his new PTSD service dog, Oliver, who will help provide support for the Marine Corps. veteran.

CBS News

"He'll go everywhere with me. He's very welcome at the fire department. They can't wait to meet him. They say he's the firehouse mascot," Gerula joked.

So far, three veterans, including Gerula, have been placed with service dogs through American Humane. Next year, McCullough hopes to increase that number fourfold.

"Every day 20 veterans take their own lives and over half a million shelter dogs are euthanized every year, so as an organization who has worked to help both these groups for over a century we're compelled to really address this challenge," McCullough said.

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Iraq War veteran and PTSD service dog form instant bond - CBS News

Published: Tue, July 18, 2017 @ 10:55 p.m.

YOUNGSTOWN

Judge John M. Durkin of Mahoning County Common Pleas court expects to have a verdict in Dr. Joseph Yurichs vehicular homicide trial Wednesday.

Dr. Yurich, 38, of Poland, faces several charges stemming from a fatal Berlin Reservoir boat crash May 9, 2015, that left one man dead and another man injured.

Dr. Yurich testified Monday that he heard an explosion when the boats collided, which caused him to relive a battlefield explosion from his time in Iraq.

The last thing I remember is an explosion, he said. That explosion triggered memories. I dont remember anything else until I got to the state park near the south side of the reservoir.

Dr. Yurich did three tours of duty in Iraq as part of a medical unit. He became choked up while remembering an explosion that hit about 100 yards away from him during his first tour. He was knocked to the ground and had to operate on a number of nurses who were injured in the explosion.

I remember being scared, he testified about the moment he recovered his senses near the state park. I was not sure what the explosion was. I remember wanting to get home.

Read more about the case in Wednesday's Vindicator or on Vindy.com.

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Yurich testifies boat explosion triggered flashback to Iraq battle - Youngstown Vindicator

Reprinted with permission from AlterNet.

TheNew York Times Tim Arango took what could have been an interesting topic for war journalismIrans increased role in Iraqand morphed it into a revisionist history of American and Saudi involvement in the Middle East. In doing so, Arango paints the U.S. as a noble, freedom-loving nation on a mission to improve the lives of average Iraqis, and Iran as a sinister imperial force working to expand its sphere of influence across the region.

Arango sets the table by citing examples of Iranian influence in Iraq, framing the disparate motives at work. He suggests that the U.S. invaded Iraq for pro-democratic purposes, while Irans response to this unilateral invasion (which its government, of course,vehemently opposed) is portrayed as sinister and plotting:

When the United States invaded Iraq 14 years ago to topple Saddam Hussein, it saw Iraq as a potential cornerstone of a democratic and Western-facing Middle East, and vast amounts of blood and treasure about 4,500 American lives lost, more than $1 trillion spent were poured into the cause.

From Day 1, Iran saw something else: a chance to make a client state of Iraq, a former enemy against which it fought a war in the 1980s so brutal, with chemical weapons and trench warfare, that historians look to World War I for analogies. If it succeeded, Iraq would never again pose a threat, and it could serve as a jumping-off point to spread Iranian influence around the region.

Theres so much unmitigated ideology at work in these two passages, we need to take a minute to break it down. Lets begin with the controversial assertion that the [U.S.] saw Iraq as a potential cornerstone of a democratic and Western-facing Middle East.

This was the public relations talking point the U.S. gave for invading Iraq, but was it true? Does Arango provide any evidence or link to an analysis that shows it to be true?Dove beauty products tells me their mission is to empower women, but it seems far more likely its really to sell soap and that this line is marketing pablum. This is a distinction a freshman PR student can make, but evidently not Arango who, for some reason, thinks the same administration that repeatedly lied about Iraqi Weapons of Mass Destruction and Saddams links to al Qaeda was on the up-and-up about the pro-democracy motives behind their devastating invasion.

If one wants to know what role democracy played in Bush administration officials decision, perhaps Arango could have asked Condoleezza Rice, Bushs national security advisor, secretary of state and key architect of the war. In an interview withABC in 2011, Rice was crystal clear that we didnt go to Iraq to bring democracy to the Iraqis. And I try in the book to really explain that that wasnt the purpose.

So, did the U.S. see Iraq as a potential cornerstone of a democratic and Western-facing Middle East? Or did it really not care either way?

As Inoted in FAIR last month, nominally down-the-middle reporters are allowed to mind-read U.S. policy makers motives so long as they conclude that those motives were noble and in good faith. Never are reporters allowed to ascribe sinister motives to U.S. officialsthis is only permissible when covering Americas enemies which Arango does in the next paragraph, insisting that from Day 1, Iran saw something else: a chance to make a client state of Iraq.

Note that the U.S. did not seek to make Iraq a client state, but rather a democracy. Big bad Iran however (which not only had nothing to do with the invasion and openly opposed it), was plotting all along to exploit the U.S. invasion to establish a puppet regime. Its a masterful work of 180-degree reality inversion.

The second thing wrong with the opening frame is that Arango mentions the 4,500 American lives lost and the $1 trillion spent but makes no mention of the 500,000 to 1 million Iraqis killed. He mentions the use of chemical weapons but doesnt say who used themit was Iraq, not Iran. He also omits the country that supplied them to Saddam: the United States.

Throughout the piece, Arango couches subjective opinions on Irans sinister motives as something analysts say or believe. Yet the only analyst he actually interviews, Ali Vaez, works at theU.S-government-fundedInternational Crisis Group and provides a vague quote about the Iran-Iraq war shaping Irans leadership.

Everything Iran does is painted as proactive, sinister aggression and everything the U.S. and Sunni monarchies do is done in reaction to this aggression. Take this dubious passage: [Iran]s dominance over Iraq has heightened sectarian tensions around the region, with Sunni states, and American allies, like Saudi Arabia mobilizing to oppose Iranian expansionism.

So here we have Sunni states, and American allies, like Saudi Arabia mobilizing to oppose Iranian expansionism. There is no Sunni expansionism or American expansionism or Saudi expansionismexpansionism (whatever that means) is the purview of Iranian aggressors. Saudi Arabia floodingSalafist fightersinto post-invasion Iraq is never mentioned.SaudiandQataribacking of Salafist militias in Syria since at the very least 2011 is never mentioned. The U.S. invasion is not framed as expansionism. Iran always draws first blood, while Gulf monarchies, painted as the besieged victims of the Shia empire, are always reacting, mobilizing to oppose Iran expansionism.

TheTimesflubbed analysis has to be seen within the wider context of American designs in the region. Arangos article serves primarily to advance the Shia crescent concept pushed by Gulf monarchies, neocons, Israel, and liberal foreign policy hawks. This narrative conjures a specter of Iranian influence from Tehran to Beirut, with total regional domination on the horizon. Stopping this sinister plot is the primary pretext for increased military involvement of the U.S. in eastern Syria, where American special forces have set up a de facto base and attacked Syrian and Iranian military assets. Its also Israels justification for its stepped-up military activity in Syria, where it has beenbackinganti-Hezbollah, anti-government rebels in Southern Syria. TheTimesarticle, whether by accident or intent, props up the entire moral and political framework for increased U.S. militarism in Syria and Iraq as territorial ISIS faces its final months.

The problem with Arangos analysis is not that Irans increased role in Iraq isnt a story; it certainly is. Its the revisionist notion that Iran had hatched a devious plot from day one of the U.S. invasion rather than react to shifting forces on the ground from an instinct to surviveespecially after watching its two neighbors get invaded by the U.S. and its arch regional enemy, Saudi Arabia, fund and arm Salafist mercenaries throughout the Middle East. Throw in the absurd, debunked notion the U.S. was motivated by a desire to spread democracy and what you have is a deeply cynical piece of pro-Pentagon myth-making, instead of an informative look at Irans increased regional influence.

Adam Johnson is a contributing analyst at FAIR and contributing writer for AlterNet. Follow him on Twitter@AdamJohnsonNYC.

This article was made possible by the readers and supporters of AlterNet.

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NY Times Rewrites History Of Iraq War, Painting US As Noble Democracy-Lover, Iran As Sinister Imperialist - The National Memo (blog)

ERBIL, Kurdistan Region At times conciliatory and other times harsh, Haider al-Abadi stressed that Kurds are partners in an indivisible Iraq during his weekly address in Baghdad on Tuesday.

A few months ago, I stressed on two or three occasions that this referendum is not constitutional. If you look at the Iraqi constitution, it is clear that we live in one homeland and are partners in this homeland. No unilateral action should be taken, Abadi said.

Reviewing the historical relationship between Kurds and Arabs, Abadi said there was sensitivity between Kurds and the regime of Saddam Hussein. But now, there is no sensitivity, he said, commending very good relations between the Peshmerga and the Iraqi army, who fought together against ISIS and finished it.

The Kurds were always saying that the Iraqi army had oppressed them, and the previous Iraqi army was saying that the Kurds were killing them in their attacks. Thank God, this army is unlike the previous one. Likewise, the current Peshmerga forces are unlike the previous ones too. We are now a united country.

Abadi said he hoped there was some alternative to Kurdistan leaving Iraq. I emphasize this, and I say, for example, I want to be a Kurd because the prime minister can be from any ethnicity. I want to become a Kurd. It is in the interests of the Kurds to be part of Iraq. It is in national, economic, trade, and security interests, if the Kurds are part of Iraq.

Abadi cautioned that neighbouring countries and the whole region will feel under threat if the Kurdistan Region gains independence.

He said that the Sykes-Picot borders, while not something he supports, are the reality and must be accepted. If the borders are changed now, families will be separated and there will be blood and casualties, he warned.

Pointing out the Kurds serving within the Iraqi government, including the president, Abadi called on Kurds, as first class citizens, to continue the coordination we have between us. He urged the political parties of Iraq to meet in order to resolve this problem in a national way.

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Kurds are partners with us in an indivisible Iraq, says Abadi - Rudaw