Posted on 06/19/2003 3:14:54 PM PDT by Ragtime Cowgirl
I'm really impressed that we're educating the people on democracy and I'm impressed that they want to learn so much. This is wonderful news.
We need the embeds back, or at least Col. North...a man who knows the value of those men and women who volunteer to defend our freedom.
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Related:
Jesse’s War Plan [MO of the press-NGOs in Iraq today] (“We put the myth out there that America was in chaos. America was not in chaos.." 60s activist)
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| Hillary Clinton Attacks Bush, U.S. Intelligence Services in Overseas Interview ^ (where's the mainstream press when Hillary sells out America?) |
It's true about the services being above pre-war level overall. Our guys have been working steadily across Iraq - with the help of the Iraqi people - for two months now.
The Coalition has been doing awesome work. The press basically ignored the detailed daily CENTCOM reports. The press doesn't ask about the Coalition successes at press conferences, and they seldom inform America or the world about how welcomed the Coalition troops are by the VAST majority of Iraqis.
SOD Rumsfeld explains it well at this May 9 press briefing with Gen. Franks:
Q...And some U.S. officials are quoted as saying that U.S. planning and execution of the postwar reconstruction were inadequate. Do you think that any mistakes were made in this area? And what is your assessment of the current state of the reconstruction effort?
Rumsfeld: Who are the officials?
Q: They're unnamed.
Rumsfeld: Ah. (Laughter.) That's nice. (Laughter.) What you're seeing in the press and on television are slices of truth. You're seeing that someone is harmed, or in a particular location the water isn't back on, or in a different location the power is only intermittent, or is in 80 or 90 percent of the city and not 100 percent of the city. All of that's true. A good deal of it, of course, was also true prior to the war. And it seems to me it's important to have that in mind.
We keep tracks, where we look each day at the major cities -- I don't now how many, 20?
Franks: Twenty-seven.
Rumsfeld: Twenty-seven cities, and track them and see how they're doing with respect to security, how they're doing with respect to water, how they're doing with respect to power and what have you. And each day it gets better. We use red for a situation that is worse than the beginning of the conflict, and green when it is better -- the same as prior to the conflict, and blue when it's better than -- the situation for the people of the country is better than it was at the beginning of the conflict, and a white for not observed. The white has pretty well disappeared now.
Franks: It has, yes, sir.
Rumsfeld: And now we are able to observe and have some sense in every portion of those 27 cities, every portion of the country.
The reds have disappeared as of this morning. There are very few blues, but there are some blues. And there are amber, or yellow, for --
Franks: -- getting better --
Rumsfeld: Getting better but not up to the green level. This is a reflection of the seriousness of purpose of General Franks and his team. And as he said in his remarks, things are, in fact, getting better every day in that country. That does not mean that people cannot continue to write articles or see television clips of something that isn't perfect, or isn't as good as it was, or isn't better than it was. That is probably also true if one looks around any city in the United States or Western Europe, that things are -- we find things are not perfect. You'll see slices of truth that suggest that there are problems.
My impression of what's taking place is that the folks in General Franks' organization and in General Garner's organization have done an outstanding job and are continuing to make things better in almost every corner of that country, every week and every month, and that's a good thing.
The other thing I'd do, just to put a little perspective on it, is it's been 51 days since the war started. I mean, ask ourselves, each of us, what have we accomplished in 51 days? No, that's embarrassing, I shouldn't do that to you! (Laughs.) That would be wrong. (Laughter.) But 51 days is not very long. And I think that the reality is that it is a very difficult transition from despotism and repression to a freer system. It's untidy, it is -- it is -- there will be fits and starts, and a couple of steps forward and a step back. There'll be bumps along the way.
And it strikes me that what it requires is for people to be realistic; to look at other countries that have made that transition and ask how was that done, how long did it take, how difficult was it, how untidy was it? And recognize that this country does not have a history of representative or democratic systems; it's going to take some time and it's going to take some patience. And we accept that, and we're there to create an environment where that process can take place. And we have patience, and we accept the fact that it's untidy. And I hope that others can recognize that and accept it and put it into some historical context.
Check my comments at #5 - "Jesse's War" link. The Iraqi war de-bunked decades of anti-American leftist lies...and the Coalition took down one of their own:
"In terms of what kind of economic system they wish to establish, as you point out, the Ba'athist Party was a socialist party. I think it's very hard to imagine any strong support in this country for a return to that economic system, which has left the country really flat on its back, and which does not really provide a model for getting the kind of vibrant private sector which I think most Iraqis now realize is a sine qua non for a stable economy and stable economic growth. So if they choose socialism, that will be their business. My guess is that's not going to happen." ~ Amb. Paul Bremer: Briefing on Coalition Post-war Reconstruction and Stabilization Efforts, June 12, 2003
Gee... now that I think about it, there WAS a lot of pre-war bitching and moaning about how bad conditions were in Iraq, and thus the necessity of lifting sanctions. I guess that must have been a lie.
Or not. Maybe conditions were worse before the war, and then got better, but then became worse; or they were better before, and THEN became worse, but got better again.
Well, whatever the case, it may or may not have been paradise before, but make no mistake: it is the United States' fault for it being worse (or not worse).
Gen. John Abizaid is getting his 4th star and taking Gen. Franks place as head of CENTCOM (when confirmed by the Senate). (^:
The American Media in Wartime
Speech delivered at a Hillsdale College seminar in Dearborn, MI ^| Apr. 28, 2003 | Brit Hume
Sounds like the methods of the mafia.
Interesting interview. The general has to sugar-coat his words for public consumption.
The general's phraseology is interesting. He's speaking in the present tense, as if Saddam is still alive.
Remember when the Palestinians danced in the street on 9-11? The mainstream international press, the EU, the DNC - were not happy for the Iraqi people on April 9th. They excused Saddam and accused America, or they insult our troops, our nation and our allies by giving the bad guys far more credit than they deserve. They still do.
using civilians as human shields
military units dressed in civilian clothes
fake surrender ambushes
arming with chemical weapons
systematic rape and torture
execution and (possible) castration of POW's
forcing soldiers to fight under threat of death to their families
placing military targets in hospitals
using ambulances for military transport
suicide bombings
attacking their own population
gassing their own population
cutting off water to their own cities
vs.
possibly bombing a market by accident
Guess which draws more protest from the media, the UN and Amnesty International? Link
Take the "Iraqi resistance" attack on the Fallujah power plant in the news today. Iraqi "resistance"? Iraq isn't a nation protesting our "occupation". The Iraqi people are worried we'll leave before we've taken out the "resistance" - leaving them defenseless against their former torturers, assorted gangsters, despots and terrorist wannabes - the bad guys.
Iraqi "resistance" equals mostly a small % of regime dead-enders without a future located in former Ba'athist Party strongholds - and in small pockets across the nation. They're desperate, because our awesome troops are taking them out and they know they will not find sympathy or cover with their victims - their countrymen.
Iraq resembles the wild west, with frightened townspeople depending on our "sheriffs" to clean up the town and protect them. It in no way resembles Nazi-occupied France - except perhaps to the bad guys.
"Resistance", like "occupation," is an anti-American talking point straight from our enemy's well-worn playbook - Communist, Islamist, socialist and Dems. Our troops, our CIC, the newly freed Iraqi people and the free world deserve better from our press. Rant over.
...Fourth, for all the doom and gloom we are making amazing progress. If on the evening of September 11th, an outside observer had predicted that the following would transpire in two years, he would have been considered unhinged: Saddam Hussein gone with the wind; democratic birth pangs in Iraq; the Taliban finished and Mr. Karzai attempting to create constitutional government; Yasser Arafat ostracized by the American government and lord of a dilapidated compound; bin Laden either dead or leading a troglodyte existence; all troops slated to leave Saudi Arabia — and by our own volition, not theirs; Iran and Syria apprehensive rather than boastful about their own promotion of terror; and the Middle East worried that the United States is both unpredictable in its righteous anger and masterful in its use of arms, rather than customarily irresolute and reactive.
Finally, do not expect to read headlines like "85% of Baghdad's Power Restored," "Afghan Women Enroll in Schools by the Millions," or "Americans Put an End to Secret Police and Arbitrary Executions in Iraq." It is not the nature of the present generation of our elites — so unlike our own forefathers in postwar Japan or Germany — to express confidence in our culture, much less in the moral nature of our struggle to end the conditions that caused this war.
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