Posted by
Grampus on Wednesday, October 11, 2006 11:41:29 AM
This from the latest episode of Iraqi Freedom veterans, and other military personnel, publicly stating their discontent with media coverage. Remember when Matt Lauer got owned by Capt. Sherman Powell? Lauer had asked Capt. Powell what he would say to people back home who doubted that morale was high in Iraq. Capt. Powell responded by saying: “Well sir, I’d tell you, if I got my news from the newspapers I’d be pretty depressed as well.” Then there’s Sgt. Seavey and Gen. Wagner countering the myth of low morale, and the audience of the morning shows demanding more positive news stories from Iraq.We must remember that the elitists don’t think that military personnel’s informed opinions count. Who could forget Richard Belzer’s diatribe about our warriors: “..That’s bull—t: ask them! They’re not informed, they don’t read twenty newspapers a day. They’re under the threat of death every minute. They’re not the best people to ask about the war because they’re gonna’ die any second. You know, the soldiers are not scholars, they’re not war experts…“ People always say they support the troops, but not the war. I find this very ironic since the troops support the war. How can you support the troops if you don’t support the mission they support? Here is an excerpt from an email comment on a left wing web site: “Whether the troops support the mission is irrelevant. They are soldiers, they (have given their lives to be ordered) (sic), it is up to us to see what lamebrains like you can’t see.” So our military’s opinion is ‘irrelevant’? Guess Belzer wasn’t alone in his belief that those who’ve never served know how to fight a war better than those trained to do so.The media consistently fails to tell you about all the little great things in Iraq. There’s rarely any mention of the school houses built, children playing with our soldiers, Iraqis wearing the clothes they want or expressing religious freedom for the first time. These stories are bumped from the nightly news, and buried in the middle of the paper … if mentioned at all. The media also always avoids military criticism of their reporting.
Other news you never hear from the media:
Recently captured al-Quaida documents contains strong evidence of fear, doubt and impending defeat. It
seems five years of continual defeat (and that is what the record is)
have shaken the 9-11 certitude of al-Qaida’s senior fanatics.
Al-Qaida’s leaders fear they are losing the war for hearts and
minds. Atiyah senses a souring of “the hearts of the people toward us.”
Al-Qaida has long sanctioned the murder of Muslim opponents it labels
“corrupt” and apostate. However, Atiyah indicates Zarqawi’s terror in
Iraq has backfired. Atiyah says killing the popular “corrupt” is
“against all of the fundamentals of politics and leadership.” He warns
“against all acts that alienate.”
Coalition forces in Iraq have suddenly received the manpower
equivalent of three light infantry divisions. They did not suffer any
repercussions in domestic politics as a result, and now have a huge
edge over al-Qaeda in al-Anbar province. How did this happen? Tribal
leaders in the largely Sunni province on the Syrian border got together
and signed an agreement to raise a tribal force of 30,000 fighters to
take on foreign fighters and terrorists.
These leaders have thrown in with the central government in
Baghdad. This is a decisive blow to al Qaeda, which has been
desperately trying to fight off an Iraqi government that is getting
stronger by the week. Not only are the 30,000 fighters going to provide
more manpower, but these tribal fighters know the province much better
than American troops .. or the foreign fighters fighting for al Qaeda.
Also, this represents just over 80 percent of the tribes in al-Anbar
province now backing the government.
I’m not big on polls, but the media is. So why aren’t they
telling you about a poll of 1,150 Iraqis in Sept. by Program on
International Policy Attitudes? That poll shows that 63% of those
Iraqis want the U.S. to stay in Iraq a year or longer. Perhaps because
it backs up the notion that we are doing some good, aren’t in a
stalemate, and certainly not losing. This poll also keeps with the
news we are getting out of Iraq that Iraqis fear the death squads … not
U.S. troops. We also know that the prisoners at Abu Ghraib want
American troops back at the prison. There goes the anti-war fruit’s
argument that we are torturous monsters, eh? The Iraqi President
doesn’t seem to want U.S. troops to leave either. Here’s what he had
to say last month:
Iraqi President Jalal Talabani said that the US military presence in Iraq keeps neighbors from invading his country. “The American presence has always prevented any kind of foreign invasion to Iraq,” Talabani said. “That’s one of the main reasons why we think that we need an
American presence, even symbolical, in the country to prevent our
neighbors attacking us,” he said at a forum at the Woodrow Wilson
Center, a Washington think thank.
Grampus