Did you know????

Various Sources from GNFI postings ^ | The Coalition Forces!

[Calpernia]

Did you know that 47 countries have reestablished their embassies in Iraq ?

Did you know that the Iraqi government employs 1.2 million Iraqi people?

Did you know that 3100 schools have been renovated, 364 schools are under rehabilitation, 263 schools are now under construction!

and 38 new schools have been built in Iraq?

Did you know that Iraqi higher educational structure consists of 20 Universities, 46 Institutes or colleges and 4 research centers?

Did you know that 25 Iraq students departed for the United States in January 2004 for the reestablished Fulbright program?

Did you know that the Iraqi Navy is operational?

They have 5- 100-foot patrol craft, 34 smaller vessels and a navel infantry regiment.

Did you know that Iraqi Air Force consists of three operation squadrons, 9 reconnaissance and 3 US C-130 transport aircraft which operate day and night, and will soon add 16 UH-1 helicopters and 4 bell jet rangers?

Did you know that Iraq has a counter-terrorist unit and a Commando Battalion?

Did you know that the Iraqi Police Service has over 55,000 fully trained and equipped police officers?

Did you know that there are 5 Police Academies in Iraq that produce over 3500 new officers each 8 weeks?

Did you know there are more than 1100 building projects going on in Iraq ?

They include 364 schools, 67 public clinics, 15 hospitals, 83 railroad ! stations, 22 oil facilities, 93 water facilities and 69 electrical facilities.

Did you know that 96% of Iraqi children under the age of 5 have received the first 2 series of polio vaccinations?

Did you know that 4.3 million Iraqi children were enrolled in primary school by mid October?

Did you know that there are 1,192,000 cell phone subscribers in Iraq and phone use has gone up 158%?

Did you know that Iraq has an independent media that consist of 75 radio stations, 180 newspapers and 10 television stations?

Did you know that the Baghdad Stock Exchange opened in June of 2004? Did you know that 2 candidates in the Iraqi presidential election had a recent televised debate in their country recently?

OF COURSE WE DIDN'T KNOW! WHY DIDN'T WE KNOW? OUR MEDIA WOULDN'T TELL US!

[pax_et_bonum]

ping

[nw_arizona_granny]

Cal,

One of your best threads.

I have heard Military people tell parts of this as callers
to the talk radio shows, also Dr. Bill Wattenberg often talks of the good work our Military is doing in Iraq and in Afghanistan.

Some nights, I suspect Dr. Bill makes a big production of the good, cause it drives the lefties nuts.

But never on the left leaning talk shows.

[Gondring]

You obviously haven’t tried to read our local paper, the Hampton Roads Daily Press – AKA the Daily Depressed.
Well, it is owned by the Chicago Tribune

Well, educate them! :-)

[jan in Colorado]

Thanks for the awesome post and ping!

[R. Scott]

I tried for many years.
I had an interesting encounter when I was a cab driver. I picked up a couple of the Tribune home office types at the airport. The asked if I subscribed to the Daily Press. I replied that I had recently cancelled my subscription because of the far left swing the paper took after the Tribune took it over. They were shocked. They informed me that the Chicago Tribune was considered a very conservative paper!

[JLO]

bump!

[Fred Nerks]

great post Caplernia!

Hey you guys, come see this.

[facedown]

From Snopes:

Claim: Messages chronicle U.S. accomplishments in rebuilding Iraq since the end of major combat.

Status: Undetermined.

What follows is a listing of the sorts of things that Cal, et al, have reported as successes in Iraq. (Similar lists have been circulated for Afghanistan.)

"Snopes'" reply is to dither around about the source of the statements and includes: "There is a valid point underlying the theme of these messages, that the media tends to report (and the public tends to follow) stories having to do with disaster, tragedy and misfortune far more than stories about good deeds and good works."

Then comes the "but" which includes the obligatory: ""Reporters don't report buildings that don't burn.")"

Their only "rebuttal" is by one guy who offers such gems as:

>> Since President Bush declared an end to major combat on May 1st… The first battalion of the new Iraqi Army has graduated and is on active duty. Over 60,000 Iraqis now provide security to their fellow citizens. nearly all of Iraq’s 400 courts are functioning.

But yet, we’ve never felt more insecure.

Blah, blah blah...

or this one:

>> All 22 universities and 43 technical institutes and colleges are open, as are nearly all primary and secondary schools.

That’s true. But every now and then, a school gets a warning about a bomb, so many parents are afraid to send their kids to schools, and when they do so, they will be deeply worried.

Then there's this one:

>> Since President Bush declared an end to major combat on May 1st… satellite dishes are legal.

Thank God, we needed something to spend our time with because no one dares to leave home after 9 PM.

Baddabing, baddaboom.

The fact is, or facts are, tremendous progress has been made in Iraq and will continue as long as right headed people run this country and, thus, the war effort. Nothing is perfect and to expect so is naive. Any jerk can describe the glass as half empty rather than half full. It in no way "refutes" any of the accomplishments Cal listed.

Our guys have done, are doing and will continue to do the job that no other countries on earth are willing or able to do: Stop the creation of terrorists where they live by helping them to develop a new order.

I, for one, appreciate postings of the good stuff our guys are doing because, other than occasionally on Fox, we never see it.

Chin up Cal, and thanks for the post.

[geezerwheezer]

How can I get a copy of this to email my editors at my local paper? I hope maybe you can email it to me at: toydesign@aol.com I'll send it to the newspapers and to the TV news folks. This would make a wondrful story. Thank you for sharing it with us.

[Dark Skies]

Nice!

[Valin]

Did you know????

Why yes I did. But then I pretty much ignore the MSM. :-)

Shipping this out on mu E-mail list.

[savedbygrace]

You get no argument from me, and my post was more or less consistent with yours, except for the question of the specific statistics listed. Since there is no mention of a date, there is no way to cross check. That is always one sign of a possible hoax.

But I repeat, we're making great progress in Iraq, so the concepts represented by this thread are real. The specific numbers I question, until we get confirmation.

[JLO]

Just a wild-assed thought.

NEVER post your email address publicly.

[Calpernia]

Excuse me? So you are calling me a liar?

What dates are you looking for?

[Chickenhawk Warmonger]

The info came from the Department of Defense website. It was a PDF document titled "Iraq the Year in Review". I am not sure if the document is still available but you can read more here..
http://www.coverstreet.com/2005/02/news-from-iraq-that-you-havent-heard.shtml

The original article was on GOPUSA.com but the link is not working.

[savedbygrace]

You must be reading a lot into my posts that just are not there.

Why are you being instantly defensive? Do you have any working links to the sources of this information? If so, please post them.

[k2blader]

BUMP!

[skr]

Thank you for the reminder.

[Calpernia]

I told you where the information came from in MY post: http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1439777/posts?page=40#40

And in YOUR post 52 you are still referring it as a hoax.

I posted in the SOURCE post that this was a compilation of GNFI postings here at FR.

Yet you are still referring to it as a hoax.

So, if you think it is a hoax, than I'm lying.

I'm putting my son down now. I will post a link for all the information.

Than I want an apology.

[savedbygrace]

Thank you, Chickenhawk Warmonger. That was the lead I was looking for. The original document is here:

http://www.defendamerica.mil/downloads/MNFI-Year-in-Review_2004-Fact-Sheets.pdf

And the stats are all there, exactly as Robin quoted them. All is good now that we have a reliable, quotable source.