News on Iraq War

[pilotyip]

How come we don't see this in the news?

By Senior Chief Art Messer - on the ground in Iraq
I caught wind of and read the recent news articles being
circulated back there in the states. I figured I could clarify some things for you. As usual the news media has blown some things way out of proportion. The countryside is getting more safe by the day despite all the attacks you are hearing about. Imagine every shooting incident or robbery committed in LA or Portland being blown way out of proportion. This is a country where most of the Saddam Hussein thugs are being chased around like scared rabbits by Coalition forces. It is literally open season on them! We hunt them down like animals. There were about a million soldiers in the Iraqi army at the beginning of hostilities and most of them took off before we attacked. There are some that were very loyal to Saddam that are trying to sneak around and take pot shots at us. We are cleaning them up pretty fast. There are also thugs from other countries running around, like Iran and Syria. Well the Iraqis hate these thugs as much as we do. So the Iraqi people are hunting them down too! I can honestly say 98% of the population of Iraq love us and they do not want us to leave...ever! They say as long as we are here they feel safe. What is going on with the countries infrastructure? Everything is going well! The railroad is running again! The railroad has not run since 1991. In the city of Hilllah, the power stays on 24 hours a day and it has more power than prior to the war. Some Iraqis are worried about getting too much food from the coalition because they don't have enough room in their homes to store it. The markets are open. The Seabees have rebuilt all of the schools and put in furniture and chalkboards. The kids used to sit on the floor! Now they have nice desks to sit at. Commerce is running. New money is being printed. The Iraqi Dinar has stabilized and is now increasing in value. Most of the Iraqi men want to buy Chevy pickups (I told them a Dodge Ram with a Cummins Diesel is better Ha Ha). They pretty much want any vehicle made by General Motors. The highways and bridges are being repaired. In the Universities, the girls have tossed their deshakas (long blackdresses with head and face coverings) and are now wearing western style clothes and even some are wearing short sleeves. The favorite drink is Pepsi, followed by Coke. They want us to bring them any and everything American. Any item made in America or that is from America is worth money over here. The newspapers and television paint a picture of doom and gloom and that we are having major problems over here. That is just not the case. The Iraqis have a saying about the situation over here "Every day is Better than the day before". Life is flowing back in to this country and it is fun to watch and I am so glad I got to watch it happen. Some days watching the raqi people is like watching the faces of little kids on Christmas Day! Many of them are walking around in a daze wondering what to do with their freedom. They are starting businesses everywhere. They want to build shopping malls and factories, they want McDonalds and Jack in the Box and Pizza Hut. Of course anything American Fast Food, because of the stories the troops are telling them. We give them our old newspapers and magazines that you have been sending us and> they are absolutely flabbergasted when they read them! They want us to keep bringing them. They read every single page even the advertisements over and over! This would be a good time for media to get their magazines going over here because the Iraqis just love them. So in short you see I will give you the straight scoop and keep you informed of what is up over here. I will sign off for now and send this along. Thanks again to all of you for your support. My mailing address has changed. The older one is no longer working. I will tell you the new one as soon as we get it. Senior Chief Art Messer 22 Naval Construction Regiment (Forward)
Task Force Charlie U. S. Navy Seabees "With Compassion For Others, We Build, We Fight, For Peace With Freedom " FOR GOD AND COUNTRY and GWB!

 

[jarhead]

I suspect the "reason we don't see it in the news", is that most of that report is not credible. Iraq was a secular society well before the two gulf wars, and still is such. The women that the article eludes to to now being able to wear western style clothes, were always able to do so. The wearing of the long black dresses has always been a choice for them. Look at the photos, for instance, of Saddam's family photos. The men and women were always wearing western dresses and suits. It is a secular society. From time to time, you would see photos of Saddam, Uday, and Qusay, wearing the robes of Arab Shieks, but mostly they wore Armanii business suits. Baghdad has night clubs, and the youth were a lot like those who hang out at night in L.A. True, there were 'privileged' and wealthy classes there, with the BMW's and Mercedes, and also an under class of many without enough to get along on, but most of that was as a result of the enforced embargo of trade with the country put in force in 1990 leading up to Gulf War I

How can one put credence in a comment that states the citizens are "afraid" that too much food is being delivered, and they won't have any room in their house to store it? C'mon----is one to believe U.S. troops are forcing people to burst their walls with storage of food stuffs?

I will conclude here by stating I was, and remain a supporter of the forceful toppling of the Bathe party and the thugs that ran Iraq for 30 years. But, I feel nothing is gained by creating "Urban Legends" about a suppression of "good news" by the world press.