Army Officers Tell Jennings Media Have Mis-Reported Iraq Efforts

Reporting from Iraq on Monday night where he traveled on a patrol with the 1st Calvary, ABC's Peter Jennings noted that "the U.S. is spending millions of dollars here on sewer pipes, sewage treatment, landfills for garbage, available clean water." Jennings asked: "How does the U.S. get credit for this?" Well not from the news media, as Jennings acknowledged that "every U.S. officer encountered today said the media has missed or under- reported this part of the U.S. mission."

On the January 24 World News Tonight, over video of himself wearing a helmet as he walked alongside soldiers, Jennings recounted his trip through a mostly Shiite town, as checked against the closed-captioning by the MRC's Brad Wilmouth:

"In the town of Obaidy, we go on patrol with American soldiers. Captain Matthew Boddini says he feels completely comfortable on foot. The kids are everywhere [video of kids running around soldiers]. Some of the insurgents have turned out to be only slightly older. Americans are ready targets in many places, but there is no apparent antagonism here. The U.S. has fought running battles with Shiites elsewhere since last summer. But the Shiites are going to win power at the ballot box next Monday, so why fight the powerful Americans on the street today?

"The town looked pretty bad [video showed hollowed out buildings and big puddles on the street], made to seem worse by a dreary day and recent rain. The U.S. is spending millions of dollars here on sewer pipes, sewage treatment, landfills for garbage, available clean water. How does the U.S. get credit for this? Every U.S. officer encountered today said the media has missed or under-reported this part of the U.S. mission."

Jennings, in interview with him (back inside, not out on patrol): "Please be candid about it."

Chiarelli: "It's fair [apparently referring to the criticism of the media]. This is a different kind of war. For 32 years I've trained to fight a war where the bad guys are on one side and the good guys are on the other side. But in this city, there's good guys and a few bad guys just about every place you go. It is absolutely critical that security not be viewed as something that just comes out of the end of a gun. Security is a combination in this city and in this country of a number of things. An infrastructure improvement and what we do in that area is absolutely critical."

ABC never did show any video to illustrate the money spent on "sewer pipes, sewage treatment, landfills for garbage, available clean water."

...."according to Army Brig. Gen. Thomas Bostick, the commander of the Army Corps of Engineers Gulf Region Division:

"1,550 construction projects are under way throughout the country -- compared to just 200 projects under way in June [2004]...

"These reconstruction projects include large, long-term capital projects that address water and sewage treatment facilities, power plants and the oil- distribution infrastructure. They also include smaller community projects that are more visible to the Iraqi people and have an immediate impact on their lives, he said. The focus of these projects is schools, clinics, hospitals, rail stations and police stations, many being rebuilt with funds from Commander's Emergency Response Program funds...

"He estimated that some 130,000 Iraqis are working on the wide range of projects under way throughout the country. The true number is actually larger, he said, when factoring in the behind-the-scenes workers who manufacture the products used on the construction sites."

"Brig. Gen. Jeffery Hammond of the 1st Cavalry Division, says Sadr City is the safest place in or around Baghdad. About 18,000 people have reconstruction jobs, he says, earning about $6 a day. 'Sadr City is what the future of Iraq can look like,' he says. Those who were once taking up arms are now talking democracy. 'Before, the men were buying black cloth for their (martyrs') banners. Now for the election, we are buying white cloths' for posters, says candidate Fatah al-Sheikh." Even the Iraqi Islamic Party is now cracking: "Iraq's principal Sunni Muslim political party conceded... that its effort to delay Iraq's parliamentary election had failed and that it was preparing a strategy to influence the elected government following the vote on Jan. 30."

Power infrastructure is also on the agenda, often on a micro level, supplementing the large scale civilian reconstruction effort. For example, "soldiers from Company A, 426th Civil Affairs Battalion, brought electricity to a village in northern Iraq. The village of Alkishki is a small rural community of approximately 250 located in the mountains of northern Iraq. The people live in mud hut homes and make their living primarily in agriculture. The $50,000 project involved erecting electrical poles and placing wiring in addition to adding a junction box and transformer to connect Alkishki village to the nearby villages' power grid. Local contractors were hired to complete the project."

The 411th civil affairs public works team together with the 1st Division engineers and the ministry of electricity has recently completed the construction of a chemicals warehouse at the Bayji Power plant. "This facility meets specifications needed to minimize both the chance of an accident and the impact if one occurs. The site is able to hold at least 14 days worth of supplies for all needed chemicals, a significant improvement over previous stores."

And in Mosul, soldiers of the 133 Engineer Combat Battalion (1st Brigade, 25th Infantry Division (Stryker Brigade Combat Team) are working with local contractors to improve local roads: "The total cost is $2.25 million with 810 jobs created. The roads were previously asphalt and in poor condition. In conjunction with this work, the groups will add concrete surface drainage cross gutters. The total cost is $250,000 with another 90 jobs created."

"Delta Detachment, 106th Finance Battalion, continues to work hand in hand with local Iraqi banks in an effort to stabilize and improve local confidence in an ailing Iraqi banking system. Through meetings with the Kirkuk Provincial bank managers, the finance detachment, along with civil affairs elements, has made significant strides with the banking system..."

"If the Army had an adopt-a-child program, Logan would be the poster child. For more than a year, the 13-year-old boy, who contends he's 13 and a half, has lived and worked with Coalition forces at a forward operating base in Mosul. The boy speaks four languages and his official title at the FOB [Forward Operating Base] is translator and supervisor, but he is a Soldier at heart.

" 'I love American Soldiers. I want to help them in every way possible, because without them we (Iraqis) would have nothing,' said Logan, who also speaks Turkish, Arabic and Kurdish and is currently learning Spanish. 'When Saddam ruled Iraq, he would kill somebody for speaking English or Kurdish. Things were very bad, but now we are much happier and I can speak all my languages freely.'

"Not a day goes by that Logan doesn't use his four languages. At the FOB, he helps Soldiers with more than 50 workers, who maintain buildings, electricity and plumbing."

Good news from Iraq

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