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LOREAUVILLE Sgt. Edward Gaddison III was welcomed back home to Loreauville Sunday afternoon with a parade of family, friends and members of the community after he returned from an 11-month tour with the Army National Guard in Iraq.

A steady stream of cars rolled down Main Street in Loreauville, led by a fire truck with siren blaring. Cars honked their horns with passengers leaning out of windows or standing up through sunroofs to greet Gaddison and family.

Gaddison's wife Calandra, 29, said she and their children son Royal, 4, and daughter Kenzley, 3, missed him and were glad to see him again. The family picked Eddie Gaddison, 29, up at the airport on Wednesday.

"Most definitely (the kids missed him)," Calandra Gaddison said. "Very much."

Gaddison said the unit's mission was basically rebuilding a base. He had volunteered to go with a different unit than his for the mission, and that unit won't be redeployed for five years. His unit is set to be deployed in July. He hasn't learned yet where he stands as far as being deployed again in July or if the time he served already means he won't have to be deployed.

For now, Gaddison is happy to be back home with his family.

"Yes, really glad," he said as the parade of cars reached Loreauville High School, where he and his wife and children watched and greeted those driving by slowly.

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Parade of cars welcomes soldier back to Loreauville after tour in Iraq - The Daily Iberian

We know that a bad economy tends to hurt the electoral prospects of incumbent presidential candidates. But what about a crisis of national security or American safety? Although the coronavirus pandemic is unprecedented in most ways, as is the Trump presidency itself, there may be historical lessons from other situations.

Im thinking of one in particular: The American experience in Iraq leading up to the face-off of 2004 between George W. Bush and John Kerry. It provides a cautionary note for those who assume that because President Trump has made numerous mistakes during the coronavirus crisis, he will be the underdog come the fall.

In spring 2004, it looked like a tight race, and the challenger led the incumbent in some early polls. Yet Mr. Bush ultimately won the fall election by some three million popular votes and by an Electoral College tally of 286 to 251. The economy was not in collapse at that time, as it is today. But the nations top national safety and security problem the Iraq war was in a bad state and getting worse. After the overthrow of Saddam Hussein in early April 2003 and Mr. Bushs infamous mission accomplished speech aboard the Abraham Lincoln aircraft carrier on May 1, Iraq spiraled consistently downward over the months leading up to Election Day.

By the summer of 2003, it was becoming apparent that resistance forces in Iraq were not just what Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld called dead enders leftovers from the Hussein inner circle who would soon be rounded up. The first big car bombings took place in August, taking the lives of a top Iraqi cleric and the United Nations special representative to Iraq, Sergio Vieira de Mello. U.S. fatality rates remained stubbornly in the range of about 30 to 40 troops a month. Earlier predictions by Bush administration officials that most American forces would soon be home were recognized as fantasies. As the year ended, U.S. monthly troop fatality rates climbed into the 40s, even after Mr. Hussein was captured.

Then 2004 hit, with a vengeance. The defining moment was the April fighting in Falluja and Ramadi a month during which 131 American troops lost their lives, and four contractors were killed and dismembered for all the world to see. Through the rest of the year, until Election Day in the United States, American troop loss rates ranged from 50 to 70 or more each month. The estimated size of the resistance, as we tabulated in Brookingss Iraq Index, quadrupled to 20,000 in the course of the year though no one knew the actual numbers. American troop numbers in country, having declined modestly to 122,000 over the course of the year from about 150,000 in the spring of 2003, returned to 140,000 in 2004.

The official U.S.-led and U.N.-approved occupation of Iraq ended in June 2004. But any sense of liberation among Iraqis did not produce stability in the months that followed.

Yet Mr. Bush won the U.S. election. He did so after 18 straight months of bad news in what was his signature foreign policy initiative. The invasion of Iraq was a war of choice started with poor preparation for the likelihood of chaos and violence after the overthrow of Mr. Hussein. How could this happen, and what are the implications for today?

First, although virtually everything the Bush administration had tried up to that point had failed, the president did not give up in Iraq. New theories of the case were developed for salvaging a very bad situation or at least minimizing the American role going forward. Even if we knew by then that Iraq had no weapons of mass destruction or clear ties to any of the Sept. 11 hijackers, the administration increasingly justified the Iraq mission as part of a larger democracy-and-freedom agenda. Nor was Iraq without some hopeful signs that could be trumpeted in a political campaign. Electricity production was back up to prewar levels, with reasonable flows of oil resuming as well. Three Iraqi votes were being planned for 2005 first to create an interim government, then to bless a new constitution, then to elect a regular government.

I believe that John Kerry would have handled Iraq much differently and more effectively if he had been president in 2003 and 2004. But that was not the question before voters in November 2004 just as what Joe Biden might have done differently to date about the coronavirus will not be the main question in November. Debates about the past are fair political game, but they are rarely conclusive in the middle of a crisis. Americans want to know about the plans going forward, not so much the mistakes already made. And Mr. Kerrys ideas about Iraq going forward in late 2004 were not radically different from Mr. Bushs.

By Election Day, Mr. Kerry had been tarred with the flip-flopper image. The Bush team sowed doubt about Mr. Kerrys leadership skills and his ability to take Iraq in a better direction come 2005.

What should this historical analogy instruct the Biden team to do in 2020? At least one thing seems clear: In choosing a vice-presidential candidate, Mr. Biden should prioritize how his political partner will help him develop, articulate and ultimately carry out a forward-looking, comprehensive plan for the chief threat facing the country today.

Michael E. OHanlon is a senior fellow and director of research in foreign policy at the Brookings Institution.

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Joe Biden Needs to Learn an Urgent Lesson From the 2004 Election - The New York Times

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BEIRUT:Lebanon has announced that it will reopen Rafik Hariri International Airport in Beirut in early July.

Prime Minister Hassan Diab said during a meeting of the tourism sectors representatives on Tuesday: We will work to resume flights to the Arabian Gulf region, and we will focus on countries conducting PCR tests to detect coronavirus infections.

The Cabinet Office said on Tuesday that all public-sector employees should return to their workplaces while taking the necessary measures to prevent coronavirus.

The total number of confirmed COVID-19 cases in Lebanon reached 1,368 as of Tuesday after 18 new cases were recorded. All of the new cases had been in contact with infected people. The death toll stands at 30.

The government is trying to improve the economic situation, which has worsened with the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic, by promoting medical tourism, Diab told the heads of tourist establishments, restaurants and hotels.

The leaders of the tourism sectors syndicates complained of the decline in their businesses due to the deterioration of the lira. The president of the Union of Owners of Restaurants, Cafes, Amusements and Patisseries, Tony Al-Rami, said that 80 percent of restaurants, including top restaurants and establishments, have not been able to open.

The president of the Syndicate of Tourist Establishments in South Lebanon, Ali Tabajah, said that 95 percent of the establishments in the south could not open because they were unable to pay rent or even buy goods.

The head of the Syndicate of Car Rental Agencies, Mohammed Daqduq, highlighted that 25 percent of car rental companies have closed, and there are 700 unemployed families because this sector depends 76 percent on expatriates and foreign tourists.

The head of the Syndicate of Maritime Firms, Jean Beiruty, said: Domestic tourism is not possible due to the high exchange rate of the dollar, and 80 percent of maritime firms did not open because their maintenance licenses have not been completed.

Jean Abboud, president of the Association of Travel and Tourist Agents, warned that the inability to transfer money abroad will lead companies to withdraw from Lebanon.

Ibrahim Al-Zaidi, head of the Syndicate of Restaurants in the Southern Suburbs of Beirut and Mount Lebanon, said that the main problem lies in the dollar exchange rate.

The victim is not the restaurant sector alone, but also the employees who lost their salaries, he said.

Following the disturbances during the protests on Saturday former Prime Minister Saad Hariri attended a meeting held on Tuesday by the Supreme Islamic Legislative Council in Dar Al-Fatwa. Grand Mufti Sheikh Abdul Latif Derian presided over the meeting. The council, which includes Sunni figures, called on the government to impose control on the entire Lebanese territory, including stopping smuggling through the Lebanese-Syrian border, adjusting the exchange rate of the dollar, and addressing the random price hikes that are burdening citizens.

The council accused infiltrators, who were among the peaceful protesters last Saturday, of attacking the security forces and carrying out acts of sabotage of public and private property. The council demanded that an investigation be held and the instigators of the riots that took place in Beiruts streets be held accountable.

The council warned against igniting the fire of sectarian strife in light of the offensive slogans that targeted a religious figure, demanding that the perpetrators be held accountable. It also called on Muslims in Lebanon to rise above the strife-inciting hate speech and adhere to the spiritual and patriotic values that make Lebanon the country of coexistence.

In the Palace of Justice in Beirut, the head of the Beirut Bar Association, Melhem Khalaf, stressed that dialogue is the only way to restore what has been destroyed by the crises. He said: We will not allow our unity to be targeted.

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'We want to breathe, too': Solidarity from Iraq - Arabnews

A C-130H caught fire after it overran a runway at Camp Taji, Iraq, on June 8 and struck a wall. Four service members received non-life-threatening injuries and are being treated at the bases medical facility, according to Combined Joint Task Force-Operation Inherent Resolve.

The C-130, which is deployed to the 386th Air Expeditionary Wing at Ali Al Salem Air Base, Kuwait, crashed around 10:10 p.m. Iraq time.

The airfield crash, fire, and rescue team were on the scene within four minutes, extinguished the fire, and assisted an evacuation of the plane, states the release.

It is not clear what service the injured troops belonged to or how badly the aircraft is damaged. Videos posted online show the aircrafts tail hanging over a cement barricade along the flight line.

The quick actions of the airfield crash, fire, and rescue team helped patients, and limited damage to equipment and infrastructure, states the release.

Two Americans and one coalition service member were killed and many more were wounded in a March 11 rocket attack on Camp Taji, however, officials say enemy activity is not suspected in the incident, which remains under investigation.

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4 Injured When C-130 Overruns Runway in Iraq - Air Force Magazine