Posted on 10/09/2004 6:20:22 PM PDT by topher
by Ray Reynolds, SFC Iowa Army National Guard 234th Signal Battalion
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. And just so you can rest at night knowing something is happening in Iraq that is noteworthy, I thought I would pass this on to you. This is the list of things that has happened in Iraq recently:
(Please share it with your friends and compare it to the version that your paper is producing.)
* Over 400,000 kids have up-to-date immunizations.
* School attendance is up 80% from levels before the war.
* Over 1,500 schools have been renovated and rid of the weapons stored there so education can occur.
* The port of Uhm Qasar was renovated so grain can be off-loaded from ships faster.
* The country had its first 2 billion barrel export of oil in August.
* Over 4.5 million people have clean drinking water for the first time ever in Iraq.
* The country now receives 2 times the electrical power it did before the war.
* 100% of the hospitals are open and fully staffed, compared to 35% before the war.
* Elections are taking place in every major city, and city councils are in place.
* Sewer and water lines are installed in every major city.
* Over 60,000 police are patrolling the streets.
* Over 100,000 Iraqi civil defense police are securing the country.
* Over 80,000 Iraqi soldiers are patrolling the streets side by side with US soldiers.
* Over 400,000 people have telephones for the first time ever.
* Students are taught field sanitation and hand washing techniques to prevent the spread of germs.
* An interim constitution has been signed.
* Girls are allowed to attend school.
* Textbooks that don't mention Saddam are in the schools for the first time in 30 years.
Don't believe for one second that these people do not want us there. I have met many, many people from Iraq that want us there, and in a bad way. They say they will never see the freedoms we talk about but they hope their children will. We are doing a good job in Iraq and I challenge anyone, anywhere to dispute me on these facts. If you are like me and very disgusted with how this period of rebuilding has been portrayed, email this to a friend and let them know there are good things happening.
He would be informed, as a Medic, of the progress, that is being made.
I do not understand, if all of these are genuine facts, why the White House does not report them.
Can some Freeper try to help verify this.
It seems reasonable, with 400,000 troops in Iraq and Civilian workers as well, that there has been quite a bit of progress in rebuilding the infra-structure in Iraq.
I want to personally thank all the troops. We are with you all the way.
This email has been around for at least a year. Ray is not a Medic but he is a fireman in civilian life. Some of what he says is true and some is exaggerated. As someone pointed out in response to this mail earlier this year, girls were attending school under Saddam. It was in Afghanistan that they were kept at home.
I do not know if this thread should be pulled.
But there must be some progress in Iraq that the media is neglecting to report, and that the President could release in a Press Release.
I guess I should have smelled something wrong with the 2 billion barrels of oil in August. Two million barrels would be more accurate...-
It is a problem when receiving an email to verify things.
It is also easy to believe that the media is hiding the true facts from the American people, just as Dan Rather and company used forged documents against the president of the United States.
some truths about Iraq
http://iraqthemodel.blogspot.com/
http://www.spiritofamerica.net/index.html
http://chrenkoff.blogspot.com/2004/09/good-news-from-iraq-part-10.html
and I just received this in an email from Jim Hake and the Spirit of America team
IRAQ'S MINISTER OF WOMEN'S AFFAIRS
Kerry Dupont (SoA's head of project management) and I met this week with Iraq's State Minister of Women's Affairs, Narmin Othman, at the suggestion of Dept. of Defense personnel. We discussed how we might support her efforts to encourage Iraqi women to participate in Iraq's January elections. Kerry also met with several other Iraqi women. One young woman told how 10 years ago her brother was taken from her house and tortured and killed in front of the family because he had supported the uprisings against Saddam after the first Gulf War. And, her sister had been killed by terrorists less than a year ago because her sister resembled the young woman. The young woman was a target for her work as a translator for the Coalition. She told DuPont that she only hoped she lived long enough to make her contribution to a free and democratic Iraq. We don't hear enough about courageous Iraqis like these. It really puts things in perspective.
AL ANBAR TV PROJECT
Members of the Spirit of America team will be meeting this weekend with personnel from the Iraqi TV stations in Al Anbar Province to whom we donated production and broadcast equipment. The meeting was organized by the Marines who also originally asked our help in equipping the stations so they could provide a local, Iraqi-owned alternative to Al Jazeera. We'll be discussing their training needs and other ways we can support their programming efforts. An update and links on the Al Anbar TV project are here: http://www.spiritofamerica.net/blogs/posts/1088706685.html
OTHER PROJECTS
We are developing two new projects with great potential - one in cooperation with the State Dept. to assist Iraqi universities that were decimated by looting after the war. University students represent one of the most influential groups in Iraq and the assistance of the American people can build lasting and positive bonds. The other project is with the US military to provide additional support to Iraqi Security Forces who are increasingly on the front lines in defending Iraq. Of course, things can change quickly in Iraq but we expect to have more information on both projects soon.
Many good things are happening...the threads email isnt that far off...the media just doesnt report it. Keep spreading the good news.
* The country now receives 2 times the electrical power it did before the war.
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I know that power before the war was 4400 MW, and today is about 6000 MV. so this is not doubling. The power is on longer and that be what Ray is speaking about. Total power rather than Peak capacity.
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