Posted on 06/29/2004 12:03:07 PM PDT by KriegerGeist
Sending Mixed Messages:
Media Giving False Picture of Iraq War
By Paul Strand
Washington Sr. Correspondent
June 29, 2004
The troops are not taking all this quietly. Some are fighting back with impassioned e-mails they are writing and sending out to the world, hoping to put a dent into the media's negative impact on the public.[Thank you to all the troops who e-mail the truth and thank you to all the "Bloggers" who post them]
(CBN News) - If you follow the mainstream media, you would get the feeling Iraq has been a huge disaster for the U.S. military. You would get the impression our troops are stuck in a bloody quagmire, torturers of hapless prisoners, unpopular occupiers who have become sitting ducks for a huge Iraqi rebellion.
Yet Army vet Stephen Jimenez did Special Ops and airborne missions in Grenada, Panama and Bosnia. And concerning the media coverage of Iraq, Jimenez said, "I'm outraged." [I wonder who the troops will be voting for this November]
He returned this spring from Iraq where he worked as a civilian side-by-side with our troops. Jimenez said, "Every day that I was there, I saw it get a little bit better, but you wouldn't see that from the media."
Check out how the media portray our troops, appearing frightened and under a "state of siege."
Check out the negative wording in news headlines: 'Promises Unkept,' 'The U.S. Occupation of Iraq,' 'Mistakes Loom Large as Handover Nears,' 'Security is Just Impossible.'
And they focus constantly on terrorist attacks and the casualties the coalition takes, as if that is a measure of the Iraqi mission's success or failure.
The loss of life is heartbreaking, but Jimenez says most of those enemy attacks fail or accomplish very little strategically.
He said, "They're a lot of small cuts, so to speak, designed to wear down the coalition for political reasons, and the media's falling prey to that tactic."
Army National Guard Capt. Mario Mancuso commanded Special Operations during the war and after. He said, "Casualties tell only part of the story. And I don't think they impact on the likelihood of military success or failure."
Mancuso and Jimenez say there is nowhere near the chaos and desperation the media make appear commonplace in Iraq. One example is in Najaf, where Mancuso once headed up troops, and where rogue cleric Moqtada al Sadr led a Shiite uprising.
"The situation was neither as desperate or as out of control," Mancuso said, "as it may have appeared from conventional TV reporting of what was going on there."
Jimenez added, "We've had attacks whereby rockets came in, no one was wounded, no one was killed, no equipment was destroyed. And you'd turn on real-time and see CNN reporting like Chicken Little, like it was the end of the world."
Mancuso said, "What it does do is for our enemies inside Iraq and in that part of the world, it plays up images, false images, of American weakness."[The media support and embolden our enemies]
The troops are not taking all this quietly. Some are fighting back with impassioned e-mails they are writing and sending out to the world, hoping to put a dent into the media's negative impact on the public.[I hope there is a way to get their message out all over the country]
These are the the words of a Marine in Ramadi: "Here in Iraq, the enemy is trying very hard to portray our efforts as failing and fruitless. They kill innocents and desecrate their bodies in hopes that the people back home will lose the will to fight for liberty. Unfortunately, our media only serves to further their cause. In an industry that feeds on ratings and bad news, a failure in Iraq would be a gold mine. If the American people believe we are failing, even if we are not, then we will ultimately fail."[I don't know how better to express this exact point. Who left, but us to get out the truth?]
Mancuso said, "For a long time al Qaeda was able to recruit new recruits for al Qaeda and terrorist operations, because they were able to say America would cut and run when confronted with casualties. If we give them the impression that we're even thinking about it, that will be a bonus for their recruitment drive."[Do you hear that Dan, Tom and Peter and the rest?]
A Tennessee National Guardsman says in an e-mail, "Our enemies in the war on terror have no tanks, no Air Force and no Navy. Their greatest and most powerful weapon is an American media more interested in today's controversy than tomorrow's victory."[These guys tell it like a jsck hammer busting through concrete]
Jimenez points out that World War II dragged on for four years and saw hundreds of thousands of casualties, but the media backed the war effort.
"If they were reporting then as they're reporting today," he said, "we would have lost the war."[He is so right on this fact]
A medic in the Iowa Army National Guard writes, "As I head off to Baghdad for the final weeks of my stay in Iraq, I wanted to say thanks to all of you who did not believe the media. They have done a very poor job of covering everything that has happened."
Mancuso stated, "But what you don't hear the media reporting is that on any given day, coalition forces are leading hundreds of patrols, hundreds of raids across Iraq, arresting detainees. Some of those missions may have nothing to do with traditional combat operations. Some of those missions are opening up hospitals, delivering aid, opening up schools."
"If you look at their reporting over a long period of time," Jimenez said, "not only what they report and how they report it and their frequency, look at what they don't report on. And you'll begin to see from doing careful analysis of the news, that they're probably the second greatest threat we face other than Al Qaeda."
What is probably most underreported are all the heroics. Jimenez remembers when a major he worked with got blasted by a bomb going off about 30 yards from him.
"He took a piece of fragmentation one inch below his eye," said Jimenez. "And what does the Marine major do? He calls in on the cell phone, said, 'Vehicle bomb went off, I'm wounded, I'm okay.' Goes and gets treated on an outpatient basis after almost losing his eye, and a week later he was out in the same area doing the same thing."
Mancuso recalls getting ready to go out on a dangerous raid when a young Marine, just wounded and with a huge cast on his arm, refused to stay back at the base.
"He could have said, 'I'm not going out on that mission,' because he was injured," Mancuso remarked. "But his unit members were out on that mission. He knew it was an important mission. An 18-year-old kid sitting in the lead vehicle as we're pulling up, ready to fire a 50-caliber weapon. I think that's unbelievable. And to think, six months ago, he could have been playing Game Boy or some video game and now he's in the field doing right by his country."
And a chaplain in Iraq wrote this e-mail about unheralded heroes and their sacrifices: "A few weeks ago an Illinois National Guardsman, mother of three, was hit six times, saved by her body armor, but lost part of her nose. She stayed on her 50 caliber, firing on the bad guys, protecting the convoy. She said she was thinking of her kids and the guys she was with. Commitment is love acted out."
"The kids I see and eat with every day," the chaplain continued, "still want to help this country, in spite of getting shot at while doing it. That is love acted out. I went to Camp Cooke at Taji, north Baghdad. The 39th Brigade, Arkansas National Guard, is stationed there. One of the old troopers who came was a 52-year-old sergeant who had done his 20-plus years and had retired. But his son was in the 39th, and when the father found out they were coming over here, he re-enlisted. On their first week in-country, Camp Cooke was attacked by rockets and the first rocket that landed killed the father. During my time in Iraq, I won't be able to see any of the biblical sites that are here. But a few weeks ago in Taji, I got to stand on some holy ground, where a father died when he went to war just to be with his son."["No greater love..."]
Thanks for posting. This squid's pretty proud of the jarheads. Semper Fi, guys!
How true.
I'm not saying that things haven't gone wrong, or that people haven't done bad things, but where's the perspective? Sure, you want to show the bad things, because that keeps people honest, but how honest is it when you intentionally leave out the good? Hell, I'd settle for all the news to be bad, but to show the worst acts commited by each side.
I see your 'panties on prisoners' and raise you a 'televised beheading'.
Iraq is not as bad as the media says, and its been steadily improving. Sure, it still sucks there, but things are coming around. Go check in on Iraq in a few years, and you'll see what I mean.
That's what's so infuriating. The media is either intentionally printing half truths, or is criminally incompetent. I realize that bad news sells better than good news, but this is out of control. Many people in my unit are either viscerally angry, or just resigned about it.
Personally, I think that time will prove them all wrong, just like Al Jazeera and Baghdad Bob were proved to be liars. I'm willing to wait.
Prayers and crossed fingers for this to happen!
Registering will do no good if the Rats deliberately delay mailing them out until it is too late to get them back in time.
Welcome back! I'm thinking July in Iraq...naw, none for me, thanks!
BTTT
BTTT!!!!!!!
BTTT!!!!!!!
Im choking up with pride and love for our troops.
Thank You for your service to our country.
"The children’s fondness for us continues to grow, they hardly ever throw rocks at us. But this maybe because the Marines always stay professional and win them over with smiles, soccer balls and candy. (or because we caught a couple of them and spanked the “sacrificial lambs”… j/k)"
LOL! Catch a couple and whip their asses! Sounds like the good ol' USA about 60 years ago.
During WWI and WWII, this media crap would have been considered treason.
BUMP!!!
Just keepin the tradition alive. Thank you too.
GOOD! it's about time!
Thanks for posting this, Geist Kreiger and thanks for the ping, She.
Thank God for the internet.
Amen!
If all we had to go on is the Media, we would all be dish rags. It's refreshing to be in here with like minded people and hear the truth for a change.
God Bless The Military!
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