Posted on 04/05/2003 8:13:24 AM PST by sinatorhellary
A combined report from myself and Maj Maples, another Texan here I serve with. Please ensure widest dissemination.
Greetings to all! It's been a while since I could send anything, but here is my update: We are still rocking and rolling over here!
I cannot believe the media's assessment and portrayal of the situation: They make it sound like we are Custer at Little Big Horn! All I can get real time is the BBC on shortwave and I'm about ready to puke at the sound of that liberal, biased blather again. I don't remember them being so sympathetic to the Iraqi cause 12 years ago but it's evidence of the continued erosion of common sense and backbone in the world.
The fact of the matter is, we are kicking the snot out of them. For the sake of historical comparison, ponder this: At Normandy, Iwo Jima, Tarawa, etc, hundreds and even thousands of men were dead or wounded before we had even gotten across the beach. Here, we have captured over 1/3 of the entire country, destroyed huge amounts of the enemy's weapons/ammunition, and cost the enemy thousands of men (killed, wounded, captured), at the cost of very few of our own men and women.
It is bad when our people are hurt, killed, or captured, but this is not tiddlywinks or a softball tournament: It is a war, and casualties are a part of it. We do all we can to avoid and minimize them, both amongst friendly forces and the innocent civilians. When war becomes necessary casualties are an unfortunate fact of life but are a smaller loss for a larger overall gain. A point to remember; when the enemy commander places his forces in the middle of civilians and protected areas to shield or hide his forces he has violated the laws of war, not us.
We must target with extreme prejudice, all the while trying to do all we can to properly identify and engage only legitimate threats and only use the amount of force necessary to deal with it. Knowing they cannot defeat us toe to toe they have fought mostly unconventionally. The enemy is not stupid and has learned some lessons from the stomping he took last time and has, at times, been fanatical, but this should not be confused with being militarily effective. They have fired lots of ammo, but they are about the worst shots in history in terms of rounds fired compared to actually hitting anything. (I'm reminded of me and some of my hunting companions sometimes.)
As has been noted before by many others, including Stormin Norman from the last war, the enemy are simply not that good of a fighters. I am no more impressed with the enemy's fighting ability this time around than was previously the case.
I am proud to be part of an effort that is multifaceted in its objectives: We are freeing a people from a brutal tyrant - saddam is a BAD guy who remember has already killed more fellow muslims than anyone in history. We're denying this BAD guy the ability to threaten other people, including Americans and Iraqis, with poison gas, germ weapons, and maybe even nukes. We are preventing this same BAD guy from sharing these bad weapons with the same nice people who brought us 9/11.
We are not bullying the Iraqi people: We are going to historically extraordinary lengths to spare them, and we have been successful much more often than not. Most of them will be more than happy to be rid of saddam's regime; they just understandably don't want to be ruled by Americans, but in a country of 26? million that still leaves a lot of regime loyalists to deal with. They are mostly immoral, criminal in nature themselves whose whole future is tied to the regime. If the regime doesn't survive and we don't kill them first the normal people of Iraq will hunt them down and kill them as is starting to already happen in some places.
I can proudly say we are good, fair, and decent people who gave our enemy a choice, which is a whole lot more than they gave our people on 9/11. I believe our cause is just and I believe in what we are doing, which is ultimately protecting the American people; folks should never forget that.
We will fight, sacrifice, and we will win, all we need is for the American people to stand firmly behind us, remain prayerful and humble before God, and have faith in eventual victory for our cause.
The Marines are doing fine, and we appreciate your continued support.
Thanks again.
Maj Jeff D Tant IV
I can proudly say we are good, fair, and decent people who gave our enemy a choice, which is a whole lot more than they gave our people on 9/11. I believe our cause is just and I believe in what we are doing, which is ultimately protecting the American people; folks should never forget that.
This is the good stuff. THIS is what I don't read in the papers or hear on TV... Why not? Why does the media have such a death wish? Are none of their loved ones on the front lines anywhere-- no vested interest whatsoever?
Thanks for the post, sinator... And the ping, bro... I needed that...
bttt . . .
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