A SOLDIER'S PERSPECTIVE
THE WEB'S LEADING MILITARY BLOG SINCE 2004
I saved up a few days worth of RSS entries from my military news subscriptions in an attempt to see if there was a trend currently on going in Iraq. I’ve looked at these and there is an unbelievable trend taking place. Good news.
National Police Hone Auto Repair Skills
Iraqis Complete First-ever Frequency, Spectrum Management Course
New Water Treatment Facility Opens
Iraqi Navy Flagship Ready to Set Sail
Iraqi Special Forces Find Wanted Criminals
Iraqi National Police Unit Completes Advanced Unit Training
These news stories range from topics of infrastructure to police to military. Why don’t we see these stories grouped together in our own media as signs Iraq is progressing to self sufficiency? Why aren’t these stories paid as much attention as the negatives have over the last six years?
I don’t like to sound like a nut, but this time I don’t mind. Because the MSM doesn’t want you to know these things. To admit that Iraq is progressing would be admitting their numerous stories of how Iraq is on the verge of collapse were wrong. They would be forced to identify their mistakes, make corrections (without erasing history as they so love to do), and then give credit where due. Journalists rarely like to admit they didn’t get the story right, nor do they like to miss a story that would break their careers and launch them to fame and glory. How many reporters have been launched to fame and glory by reporting the good things happening in the world.
It isn’t hard to find success stories from Iraq. It took me about 5 minutes to find those links above. If I spent an hour or two looking for good news in Iraq I’m sure you’d be busy reading links for twice as long.
We have to keep finding the good news. It is because of milbloggers and independent journalists that we know the true story of what good has happened and will continue to happen in Iraq.
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SSgtJ
Awesome news … thanks for sharing.
Semper Fi
JD
The true story of Iraq is that we had no business invading and occupying in the first place. The Bush administration lied to US about what we were doing there. When an unnecessary war is based upon exaggerations and obfuscations, nothing else that follows is beneficial to the people of Iraq or the US. Yes, some greedy defense contractors will benefit, but the people pay the price for lies.
Marcus
Wow, I must say I’m impressed, JD. Not only did you completely ignore the links and the basic idea of the post, you revived the greatest old line of all time! “Bush lied, people died!” Way to go, JD. Your optimism for a fledgling democracy is inspiring!
sue05
JD stuff a sock in it for Pete’s sake.
SSgtJ
Sue, you said it so much nicer than I would have …
Critical Facts
Anyone who does not realize that Iraq is, and will continue to be for a very long time, on the verge of collapse does not know the conditions on the ground in Iraq!
SSgtJ
Why hasn’t your Messiah pulled all of the US troops out of there already?
Critical Facts
Because Iraq is, and will continue to be for some time, on the verge of collapse!
What would you, SSgtJ, have Obama do?
WOTN
CJ, To “Win A War,” you must break the will of the enemy to fight. Viet Nam presented a model for that, which achieves success even when the tradional means fail: http://waronterrornews.typepad.com/home/2009/05/how-to-win-a-war.html
And if you want to see the daily trends in Iraq, or in Afghanistan, they’re readily found here: http://waronterrornews.typepad.com/home/daily_report/
and here: http://waronterrornews.typepad.com/home/afghanistan/
Those two prove your thesis and the first reference clarifies the reason for it.
JD
Why are the supporters of Bush’s war of terror in Iraq so afraid of the truth?
Peace and Semper Fidelis…
SSgtJ
News flash. Bush isn’t President anymore.
Do you want a total pull out of all US forces TODAY?
BTW, my son reports that SADAM’s reign of terror in Iraq is now over thanks to him and his fellow Marines.
Semper Fi … and peace to you as well.
Thomas Patrick Folan
THE CASUALTY CON
BAM FALLING FOR TALIBAN TRICKS
by our friend Ralph Peters
THE most effective weapon terrorists have found to wield against us isn’t the headline-grabbing suicide bomber or even the deadly roadside bomb, the IED.
Such weapons can harm us, but they can’t stop us. Terror’s super-weapon is the lie.
Lying about civilian casualties is the one sure way to impede or even halt US (or Israeli) operations, to force such tight restrictions on our troops that they can’t win.
The casualty con’s so effective as both propaganda and tactic that terrorists everywhere have adopted the technique. It’s been so successful that our enemies long ago transitioned to the next phase: creating civilian casualties and blaming us.
It works. The media love the charge. Our troops and pilots are always guilty — even if proven innocent. Because so many on the left want us to be guilty.
Few journalists bother to investigate. If the Taliban, al Qaeda, Hezbollah or Hamas says it, it must be so. In Media Wonderland, terrorists never lie. Now every successful strike on a Taliban target generates the instant claim that the dead were all civilians.
And it isn’t just the media who back the Taliban. The Obama administration — a case study in instant foreign-policy ineptitude — signs up, too.
This week, Taliban terrorists publicly beheaded three civilians in Afghanistan’s Farah province, then herded women and children into compounds from which they fought government forces and US advisers.
With a vicious ground battle under way, the Talibs knew attack aircraft would appear. According to military sources, they set up the target. And, just in case, they slaughtered those women and children with grenades before any aircraft appeared. The entire massacre was a planned media event.
And who gets blamed? Not the Taliban. Before the smoke cleared, Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton was apologizing. (Apologizing is one thing this administration does with real enthusiasm.)
Our SecState played right into the Taliban’s hands. It was instinctive on her part. Clinton and her new Cabinet peers know that our military’s evil. No need to say a single word about the Taliban’s atrocity.
A few hours later, President Obama stepped up to his mike and read a prewritten statement about his meeting with Afghanistan’s President Hamid Karzai and Pakistan’s bookie-in-chief, President Asif Ali Zardari.
We’d need to comb the historical records, but it’s just possible that no American president ever read a statement so out of touch with on-the-ground reality. The platitudes were thick, the substance was thin and the vision was pure fantasy.
No criticism of Karzai for consistently playing the populist card and backing Taliban claims. No criticism of Zardari for cowering while the Taliban overruns his country and its huge military twiddles its thumbs, dreaming of a war with India.
No, our president announced that he’s going to bring civilian resources to bear now, sending $1.5 billion a year to Pakistan. Yet self-impoverished Pakistan has more than 170 million angry Muslims. Our president’s going to make them our pals for an annual nine bucks a head?
It wouldn’t matter if we poured in $90K for every Pak. Multi-year development projects are useless against an insurgency that’s 60 miles from the capital. We’re turning a home fire extinguisher on an inferno.
The Pakistanis have to fight. If they’re not willing to fight to save their own country, there’s nothing we can do.
Meanwhile, back in Afghanistan, the Taliban strategy of creating civilian casualties — and lying about who the casualties are — is undercutting any potential effectiveness of the 21,000 more troops we’re sending to that worthless, hopeless country.
At the end of the day, the Taliban strategy works because our own government sides with the terrorists against our troops.
Instead of begging for forgiveness, Clinton needed to take a firm position. She should have said: “The deaths in Farah province were entirely the fault of the Taliban. To punish these terrorists and better protect Afghan civilians, we’re loosening our rules of engagement. We will not tolerate this cynical use of women and children as unwilling weapons of war. These war criminals will be hunted down and killed.”
Instead, Hillary blamed our military. Again.
This is war, Madame Secretary. Tragic mistakes happen, but the incident in Farah province wasn’t an error — it was a brutal, cynical set-up. And you stabbed our troops in the back. Again.
If the Obama administration doesn’t want to fight, it should bring our troops home now. And let’s see how much good those civilian-aid workers do.
Ralph Peters is Fox News’ strategic analyst and the author of “Looking for Trouble.”
SSgtJ
Well said Thomas. I couldn’t agree more.
I have always supported the troops and I have always supported the mission. But if our own government is going to sabotage the troops and/or the mission, then they are guilty of murder. If we can’t be allowed to complete the mission, then why kill or maim more people? If the messiah isn’t going to let the troops do their job, then bring them home.