The People were very grateful to both the Iraqi and the US forces present, giving gifts of bread, meal and chai (an Iraqi form of tea) to the forces present. Additionally, there were the ever present children who came to see the troops, and ask for parts of the Meals Ready to Eat (MREs) the soldiers were eating on this mission. They loved getting their pictures taken and broke into chants of "USA! USA!" periodically.

As the day wore on, the members of the ASTs (Advisor Support Teams) took different views of the day's events. From the roof of the new city hall now under construction, we could see a long line of people preparing to cast their first free ballots as Iraqi citizens. We watched as a free media interviewed local officials about the elections, and we saw the cast ballots being assembled in the mayor's office. Most heartening of all, we could hear the foot stomping, clapping and singing of the different security forces as they celebrated the day's successes. All of the Iraqis said this was a great day for Iraq.

There are some people in both the United States and the world that do not agree with the coalition cause in this country and believe the cost of ridding Iraq of the Ba'ath party was not commensurate with the benefits realized. Had those people been in Sununi, Iraq on January 30, 2005 they would have a drastically different perspective.