By David Mac Dougall

Do you remember what you were doing on April 9th 2003? Most Iraqis do. It was a day filled with iconic images of American tanks in the center of Baghdad - and Saddam Hussein’s statue being pulled to the ground. After just a few weeks of war - and that “shock and awe” campaign - Baghdad had fallen.

Five years ago I watched Saddam’s statue being toppled live on television from the control room of a morning news show I worked on in Boise Idaho. There was no need for local news that day - all eyes were fixed on the scenes from Baghdad. At that time, I had no way of knowing that just a few months later I’d be in the heart of the Iraqi capital myself… or that five years on I’d still be here.

PHOTOS COURTESY OF AP

Today, there are no celebrations marking April 9th. In theory, it’s a national holiday - but at the same time there’s a curfew keeping cars, minibuses and motorcycles off Baghdad’s streets.

Shiite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr had called for a “million man march” to mark the continued presence of American forces in Iraq - but at the 11th hour he was forced to call off the march, citing the potential for it to provoke yet more violence.

Some of al-Sadr’s followers seem to have been prevented from reaching Baghdad by Iraqi security forces, but it’s doubtful anyway, whether a million people would have shown up to take part in the demonstration.

You’d think that today would be the ideal time for Iraqis to come together to mark the end of Saddam Hussein’s oppressive regime. But a majority of people in the country have little to celebrate five years on from liberation. In fact, many Iraqis now view April 9th not as the start of “liberation” but as the start of “occupation”. The years since the statue fell have been filled with extreme poverty, near-constant fighting, political bickering, a rise in disease and a drop in basic standards of living. Millions of people have been displaced from their own homes - becoming refugees in their own country, or fleeing to an uncertain safety abroad. Most of all, the last five years have been filled with death.

This week, General Patraeus and Ambassador Crocker are giving another update to Congress about the situation in Iraq. The bottom line of their testimony is that there have been slow but tangible improvements here recently (especially over the past year since the troop surge and security plan were announced). Patraeus and Crocker are also stressing that those improvements are fragile and could be lost without perseverance and continued commitment.

What can Iraqis look forward to in the next five years? Even the most optimistic Iraqi would be looking through rose-tinted glasses if they said there will be peace, stability, a strong honest government and no horrific violence. But ask any Iraqi, and they’ll tell you that’s what they want for themselves, their families and their country. I guess only time will tell if the next five years will be better than the last.

FOX FLASHBACK: APRIL 6- APRIL 12: Check out the video below to see Saddam’s statue topple (about 40 seconds into the video), as well as other influential moments that occurred this week in history.

Don’t you just love chance encounters that turn into life changing events?

I have a great story to share with you that involves a very good friend of mine who took a trip to Nordstrom to buy sunglasses one day, and because of the people she met in front of the store, ended up with much more than a pair of shades. She ended up with a military pen pal which led to a courtship that reached half way around the world, and eventually a marriage proposal on the beach in Hawaii!

Meet Jennifer Jones, and Army CPT Scott Lee. There were a lot of obstacles to get to this one photo, but it is a story that will make you smile, and hopefully understand what so many people go through waiting for their loved ones to return from Iraq.

Quick background: I met Jennifer (who we all call Jones, actually, all of us in our group are referred to by our last names only) when we were both radio reporters at News Talk 1530 AM KFBK in Sacramento 10 years ago. We became fast friends, and were part of an amazing team of reporters, writers, and producers who have stayed close after we went our separate ways. Jones left the nest first, for an amazing job at San Francisco’s powerhouse radio station KGO AM 810, then I left Sacramento for a job at KFI AM 640 in Los Angeles. Jones quickly made her mark as one of their top field reporters, and anchors, and currently is the host of the morning show on the station (we are all so proud!)

Now to our story….

As we know, it’s sunny in California, and a girl has to have a good pair of sunglasses. Just before the fourth of July in 2004, Jones went to Nordstrom in Walnut Creek to go shopping, when she came upon a group of military moms. They had set up a table outside the store, asking for people to write letters to soldiers in Iraq to be included into their care packages. Being a patriotic soul (you should see all the American flags she has, and hear her sing God Bless America….) she said “sure!”. She wrote a letter that simply said: “Dear Soldier, I appreciate what you are doing, stay safe, God bless” and signed it Jennifer Jones. Simple, sweet, and to the point. The military moms told her to include her email address, so that if a soldier wanted to have a pen pal, they could have a way to write back. She agreed and added her email address.

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