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BL Harbert lands contract for project in Iraq Birmingham Business Journal BL Harbert International has landed yet another major federal contract for an international project. The Birmingham-based contractor was awarded the contract for construction of the new U.S. Consulate Complex in Erbil, Iraq, by the U.S. Department of ... and more »

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BL Harbert lands contract for project in Iraq - Birmingham Business Journal

By Elias Cepeda

Looking toward this week's celebration of his nation's independence from Britain UFC lightweight star Joe Lauzon recently recounted to FloCombat a trip visiting members of the United States' armed services as they worked abroad. Lauzon and other elite fighters like Jake Ellenberger and Diego Sanchez recently traveled together to visit a number of U.S. military bases in Iraq.

The trip was not Lauzon's first time visiting troops or even traveling as far as Iraq to try and help boost moral. Back nearly a decade ago Lauzon visited other service men and women in Iraq along with heavyweight Heath Herring and middleweight Jorge Rivera.

Despite traveling with those two big men, back then, Lauzon says he ended up carrying much of the load when it came to training with the troops. The UFC record-holder loved the experience, but it wore on his body a bit.

"That first trip was great, I got to train with so many of the troops," Lauzon recalled.

"Jorge had a hurt hand so he couldn't train and Herring, I think he just didn't want to roll with people (laughs). So, I ended up training with everyone myself, person after person. It was a lot of fun but I'd go with 15-20 people, then go to another two bases in the day and do that again each time. After a while I asked the people organizing the trip if I could take control of the training a little bit more and so I ended up more teaching a class, a seminar, and then afterward rolled, so it wasn't just an hour of rolling, straight."

With the knowledge gained from that experience, Lauzon planned ahead on his most recent trip, organized by Pro Sports MVP.

"This time, off the bat, Pro Sports MVP told the people, 'Hey, just hand it over to this guy, he has a good handle on how to run things,'" Lauzon continued."I asked the other fighters if they were cool with it and then we ran it like a class and then divided up rolling among us all. We were all different sizes and weights as well, so we could give some of the bigger soldiers a different look than some of the smaller ones. It worked out really great."

Lauzon said that the experience and skill level he and his fellow fighters encountered among the servicemen they trained with at the bases they visitedvaried a great deal, but that they all showed an eagerness to learn and had great attitudes. "Some of them had no experience at all grappling but wanted to try it out. That was fun," he said.

"Others had done a littleor had wrestled. Others were combative instructors and were really great."

Lauzon said that he and the other athletes got some decent quality time with military members, who hailed not just from the United States, but also from many other allied nations. "We did a lot of sitting, eating, talking. That was probably the best part," he went on.

During those conversations Lauzon said he just asked about soldiers' lives in Iraq, so far from their loved ones. In just over a week of travel and time spent with them, Lauzon said he was reminded in subtle but powerful ways just how good he had it.

"There's little things about their lives living out there that make you realize how much you take for granted," he began to explain.

"Some of the bases are nice, have bathrooms and all that. Some are more bare-bones, have outhouses. Even things like inconsistent internet and phone service show you how much we have and little bits of what they have to go through. My first night there I'm stressing because the internet signal isn't great and I'm wondering, 'How am I going to FaceTime with my wife? How am I going to say goodnight to my son? How can I let them know I got in alright and am fine?'

"That's something soldiers out there have to live with every day. Their families are far away, for years. Even small things like internet service shine light on the big things they sacrifice to serve in the military."

In the end, that is precisely why Lauzon found it a pleasure to briefly visit with military service people abroad. It wasn't in support of or opposition to any military policy, war or exercise that Lauzon went to Iraq.

Those decisions had been and continue to be made. Lauzon recognized that, regardless of what any of us may think of policy or even what individual soldiers may think of it, military personnel trust all of us and their nation deeply and sacrifice greatly to do as we ask them to.

That phenomenon deserves recognition, and the living embodiment of that sacrificing philosophy deserve some humanity showed back to them. "I just wanted to go there to spend time with them, show them that we think of them, that we care about them, and to show them we appreciate that they gave up a lot when asked," he said.

"A lot of the bases we went to were smaller ones and we were told some of the people there had never really gotten visitors before. A lot of times entertainers get sent to the larger bases. So you could tell they enjoyed just having visitors, being so far from home. For me, it was great and humbling to see how they live and an honor to spend even just a little time with them and try to show them that we're thankful for them."

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Joe Lauzon Visits Troops In Iraq, Recounts 'Humbling' Experience - FloCombat

Every year for the past few years, weve gotten even more horrible statistics showing the harrowing impact of the opioid epidemic on America. In 2015, overall drug overdose deaths, largely as a result of the opioid crisis, reached a new historic record topping deaths from guns or cars that year, and even the toll from HIV/AIDS at the height of that epidemics peak in 1995.

In 2016, we got another awful statistic: Drug overdose deaths reached another record and, based on the highest estimate by a New York Times analysis of state data, topped total US casualties from the entire wars in Vietnam and Iraq.

The Timess analysis calculated that 59,000 to 65,000 people died of overdoses in 2016, with a harder, but likely inaccurate, number of 62,497. (Well get the official numbers later in 2017.) In comparison, more than 58,200 US troops died in the Vietnam War between 1955 and 1975, and more than 4,500 have died so far in the Iraq War since 2003 which adds up to more than 62,700.

Although its hard to say for certain, the Times suggested the [opioid] problem has continued to worsen in 2017. In short, the opioid epidemic was already the deadliest drug crisis in American history in 2015. It got much deadlier in 2016, and is likely even worse so far in 2017.

It can be hard to conceptualize the numbers were talking about here. So Bella Lucy from Voxs graphics team put together the following chart. It requires a bit of scrolling.

For more on the opioid epidemic, read Voxs in-depth explainer, the abridged version, or the maps and charts variant.

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In 2016, drug overdoses likely killed more Americans than the entire wars in Vietnam and Iraq - Vox

Retired Army Capt. Dan Feehan has filed to run as a Democrat in Minnesotas 1st District. Campaign photo

An Iraq War veteran who later had a high-leveljob at the Pentagon will run as a Democrat for an open Minnesota congressional seat expected to be one of the nations costliest House races in 2018.

Dan Feehan, 34, filed paperwork Thursday to make his candidacy official. He planned a kickoff on Monday. Acampaign aide said Friday that Feehan was withholding comments for publication or broadcast until that day and wouldnt consent to an interview for immediate use.

The 1st Congressional District race in southern Minnesota will be closely watched because DFLRep. Tim Walz is running for governor rather than re-election. Walz narrowly hung on for a sixth term in a district that Republican President Donald Trump carried.

Feehan is the fifth DFLer to declare a candidacy.So far only one Republican, James Hagedorn, is in the running on that side after having sought the seat inthe prior two elections.

According to materials provided by the campaign, Feehan was raised in Red Wing and now lives in North Mankato. His biography says he served two tours in Iraq between 2005 and 2009, receiving military commendations along the way. He worked his way up to the rank of captain and later held a deputy assistant secretary position in the Department of Defense. Along the way, Feehan was a fellow in Democratic President Barack Obamas White House.

Feehan and his wife, Amy, are raising two young boys.

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Iraq War vet to vie for open Minn. congressional seat - Minnesota Public Radio News (blog)

Zheger Hassan is adjunct professor of political science at Kings University College in London, Ont., and a fellow with MENARG at the University of Western Ontario

Last month, a violent skirmish took place in Sinjar, Iraq, between Kurdish peshmerga and Sinjar Resistance Units. The peshmerga involved in the violent clashes are not the same peshmerga that Canada is training and arming. Canadas support for the Kurdish region of Iraq and its peshmerga continues to expand, yet it is not clear that Canadian officials recognize the important differences and connections between the principal Kurdish group receiving Canadian military support and other Kurdish groups in Iraq and those from neighbouring Syria and Turkey.

Minister of Defence Harjit Sajjan, and other Canadian officials, have inaccurately referred to the Kurdish peshmerga simply as Kurds and peshmerga. This is consistent with a general assumption in Western countries that Kurds in the Middle East form one large allied ethnic group. The reality is far more complicated, as will become clear in the following outline of the key Kurdish groups. This will have an impact on Canadian interventions in Iraq.

The Kurdish region of Iraq is a semi-autonomous political entity with parallel administrations: The Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP) governs the provinces of Dohuk and Erbil; and the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK) governs Sulaymaniyah province. Canadas activities in Iraq are conducted primarily with the KDP. It is the dominant political group and its leader, Masoud Barzani, is president of the region. This party holds a plurality of seats in the Kurdistan regional parliament. It also controls a large peshmerga force that is fiercely loyal to the party rather than to the Kurdistan Regional Government. The KDPs most important ally is the Turkish government, which, according to analysts, exercises significant influence over the KDPs decision-making.

The PUK remains relevant despite losing significant support from the population over the past decade. It has managed to do so because it controls its own peshmerga and receives substantial material and political support from Iran. In exchange for this support, Iran often uses the PUK as a vehicle to advance its agenda in the Kurdish region of Iraq. Iran is often accused of destabilizing the Kurdish region in an effort to maintain its influence in Iraq.

The political environment in the Kurdish region of Iraq is further complicated by the presence of peshmerga from Syria and Kurdish guerrillas from Turkey. The firefight in Sinjar involved three groups: Rojava peshmerga from Syria (Rojava is the name for the Kurdish region of Syria) and members of the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK), as well as the Sinjar Resistance Units, who are Yazidi fighters (many of whom identify as Kurds) loyal to the PKK. It is generally believed that the Rojava peshmerga take orders from Mr. Barzani and the KDP.

The clash in Iraq suggests that the situation is untenable. The KDP has claimed the Sinjar region as its territory, but the PKK has established bases in Sinjar and it has ignored the KDPs appeals for it to leave Iraq. Instead, the PKK has entrenched itself in the Sinjar area and it has gained the loyalty and support of many Yazidis, who regard the PKK fighters as their saviours against the Islamic State. The base in Sinjar allows the PKK to simultaneously counter the KDPs growing influence in Rojava, and to launch military assaults against the very Turkish government that is allied with the KDP.

Canada is quickly becoming entangled in a web of competing political and military factions in Iraq and its new defence policy could make matters worse. One of the key pillars of the Liberal defence policy, entitled Strong, Secure, Engaged, is the expansion of Canadas military activities abroad. Iraq is one military mission that should not be expanded, but rather curtailed.

Although it is well-intentioned, Canadians should be mindful that Canada is conducting its military activities with a specific Kurdish group rather than with some broader peshmerga and Kurds. Kurdish rivalries have historical roots and violent clashes will continue to break out as each group attempts to expand its influence. Arming and training peshmerga committed to one political party will draw Canada into a protracted conflict.

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Canada caught in a web of competing Kurdish factions in Iraq - The Globe and Mail