Troops See Progress, Grow Weary of Negative Reports on War

American Forces Press Service ^ | Fred W. Baker III

[SandRat]

WASHINGTON, July 16, 2007 – Troops on the ground in Iraq are not as much tired of the war as they are of those who are not in the fight saying that no progress has been made, a top commander in the region said today. The troops there see progress every day, said British Army Lt. Gen. Graeme Lamb, deputy commander of Multinational Force Iraq and senior British representative in Iraq, speaking to Pentagon reporters via satellite.

“They see the water going to people who didn't have it before. They see electricity coming on line. They see stability to the networks. They see all the stuff that no one really portrays,” Lamb said. “While it's so clear to them that we're making progress, it's not reflected by those who are not in the fight, but [who] are sitting back and making judgment.”

Overall, Lamb called the day-to-day work there by coalition forces “hard pounding,” and said that extraordinary things are being accomplished by ordinary people.

“You should be enormously proud of what I see your Marines, your Air Force, your Navy, your Army and the civilians who are in the fight out here, as to what they do, and gladly,” Lamb said.

The British general has served in Iraq since August 2006. This is his second tour to the region. He said, that in the first month of the surge there has been “good progress, steady momentum, hard fighting, [and coalition forces] going places where they haven't been before. I see -- unequivocally -- that this surge is making a difference.”

Lamb compared the complexities of the mission there to playing three-dimensional chess in a dark room – while being shot at.

But, he said, Iraqi forces are making ground in their training and several units own their own battlespace. This is key as coalition forces begin clearing and holding new sections of the capital city.

Only a few years ago, after coalition soldiers would leave cleared areas, insurgents would return and again take control. Under the new strategy, coalition forces now hold sections of the city allowing for local governments to be formed, construction of key infrastructure, training of security forces and the rebuilding of the economy and workforce.

Now, when coalition forces leave, Lamb said, the “vacuum” is not filled with insurgents, but a trained security force and a growing economy.

He said it is a concerted effort on the parts of coalition forces, the local community, Iraqi security forces and the Iraqi government. “The sum of the parts is so much greater than where we were before, and the difference should not be underestimated,” Lamb said.

Already, several Iraqi units are holding their own north in Diyala and Salahuddin and south in Babil and Basra.

Still, most units require U.S. help with logistics, command and control and intelligence, he said.

Iraqi security forces and the Iraqi government are busy weeding out those who are aligned with the insurgency and sectarian violence, especially within the police force, he said. U.S. forces are arresting, and turning over to the Iraqis, any of their security force who are guilty of using their positions to promote sectarian violence, Lamb said.

“We'll take the individuals, arrest them and put them through the Iraqi criminal justice system,” he said.

Already, 11,000 members of the police force have been removed and 4,000 are in the criminal justice system under review.

“I've seen over my time here people … looking to improve and deliver a force that is Iraqi rather than sectarian,” he said.

[SandRat]

FR WAR NEWS!

WAR News at Home and Abroad You'll Hear Nowhere Else!

All the News the MSM refuses to use!

Or if they do report it, without the anti-War Agenda Spin!

[God luvs America]

bump

[xcamel]

The big(est) problem is the pro-mission troops aren't making enough noise by demanding the media give them equal face time. The MSM will do just about anything to avoid interviewing them, or getting the true story out to the general public. I have to believe there are many times the number of pro-mission troops than the snarky bitter fools that become useful idiots for the anti-war press.

[Izzy Dunne]

Troops [...] Grow Weary of Negative Reports on War

Which is, after all, the point.

[maine-iac7]

What is the name of the new book just published that covers this feeling of the troops about the media and Washington libRats being as much an enemy as the terrorists?

[SandRat]

Sorry,... I don’t know.

[maine-iac7]

LOL

I knew it was mentioned about a week ago on a thread here. So I just went thru pages and pages of comments and found it. Now here's the rub: It was in an article I posted in the first place. Time for me to go to bed!

the book:

the thread:

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1862052/posts

and excerpt:

One, the "off the charts high" morale of the vast majority of the soldiers and Marines in the field, and their firm belief both in the rightness of the cause and their ability to ultimately prevail —- if given the chance. Two, an increasing feeling of being "undermined and unappreciated," and the corrosive, alienating effects of those feelings. .................denouncing our actions, denouncing our leaders, denouncing the war we live and fight, they are isolating the military from society . . . and they are becoming our enemy."

[Chicos_Bail_Bonds]

Check out Drudge right now, that’s exactly what the MSM are doing. Highlighting the negative stories of troops just in time for the Rats little sleepover tomorrow night.

[Son House]

it’s so clear to them that we’re making progress, it’s not reflected by those who are not in the fight,

not reflected by those who are not in the fight

not reflected by those who are not in the fight

not reflected by those... who are not in the fight

.

Having a Jim Morrison/Doors moment

“When I was back there in seminary school, there was a person there who put forth the proposition that you can
petition the lord with prayer....
Petition the lord, with prayer....
Petition the lord...with prayer!

“YOU CAN NOT PETITION THE LORD WITH PRAYER!!!”
—Jim Morrison and The Doors

.

YOU CANNOT ‘NOT’ BE IN THE FIGHT!!!

[shield]

bttt

[sono]

Someone needs to get this news to Melon Head Webb.

[NordP]

The United States Military - Liberators & Protectors - Making the World a Better Place

Way to go Heros!!!

[SandRat]

Oh Thank You!!! Now I have a book to buy and Read on vacation next week. Hurray!

[Irish Eyes]

The latest book by Lt. Col. Robert "Buzz" Patterson (U.S. Air Force-Ret.) is called War Crimes: The Left's Campaign to Destroy Our Military and Lose the War on Terror. In the book, he claims that two anti-war groups -- "United for Peace & Justice" and "CODEPINK: Women for Peace" -- literally gave aid and comfort to terrorists when they delivered $600,000 in cash and supplies they claim was humanitarian aid to civilians.

Beat me by eight minutes ;)

[maine-iac7]

;o)

[LZ_Bayonet]

President Theodore Roosevelt - May 31, 1907

"There are some veterans of the Civil War in here. They will remember how, shortly after Sumpter was fired on, a large number of enthusiastic people who were not themselves going into the army began to shout, "On to Richmond," and to say that Richmond should fall in sixty or ninety days. It took four long and weary years; and the same people who in 1861 had shouted, "On to Richmond, the war must be ended at once", in 1862 wished to declare the war a failure and voted to abandon it because it had not been ended at once. Perhaps some of the older gentlemen remember that, don't you? Exactly. The hope of the nation then lay, not with the men who expected the immediate impossible, nor yet with the man who was cowed and did not believe that you could put the war trough, but with the man who recognized the difficulty of the struggle, who, recognized that they had a most stubborn gallant enemy to fight, and who went in and enlisted for a three years' war and saw the war through."

[maine-iac7]

LOL I'm ordering the book right now - not going to "loose" it again! Just the day before this came out, I was talking with my grandson in Afghanistan and this demoralization of the troops because of the enemy here at home = is exactly what he told me.

We've got to do some serious shouting

[maine-iac7]

That is a great quote.

History repeats itself.

Only the names and dates change.

[LucyJo]

BTTT to the progress in Iraq, and support for our military men and women!