[Ragtime Cowgirl]

After three months of daily chicken little press coverage on Iraq:

• The good guys (troops and leadership) are under fire from those who want to see AMERICA - and freedom - fail (yet, many of these critics claim to care about our troops). 

• By replaying Saddam propaganda tapes, the press continues to incite fear in the Iraqi population. The tapes were formerly used to terrify and control the Iraqi people - backed up by actual torture and murder. According to Emad Dhia, director, Iraqi Reconstruction and Development Council, Iraqis responded recently to Al Jazeera's playing such a tape: "We really hate this tape; why you played it?  It's really hurt our feeling to listen to it.  We don't want to hear this guy again.  We despise him.  We hate him." The frightened Iraqi people in areas near remaining Saddam loyalists are understandably afraid to stand up for their own rights, or to help our troops in the new Iraq - giving the bad guys (unwarrented!) status and (never gonna happen!) hope for a future in Iraq (yet, the press claims to care about our troops).

• The inaccurate press coverage effects troop morale. Troops call home - expecting praise and thanks from their communities for removing Saddam - only to hear worried loved ones and negative 'news' -  unlike their reality in Iraq. Friends back home don't know about the thanks they receive from the Iraqi people, their hard work, the progress they see daily in Iraq (yet, the press claims to care about our troops).

• While the negative news comforts our enemies and confuses the newly freed Iraqi people, it also threatens our national security. Our perceived weakness (BIGGEST LIE, YET) undermines our efforts to collect on promised international support in $$$ and replacement troops. Some of our troops will be staying on and policing the bad neighborhoods - risking their own lives to once again remind the bad guys who's boss - thanks to the press (yet, the press claims to care about our troops).

What if the people had been told the daily good news back in April? What if the press had gone to the primary news source on Iraq, CENTCOM, daily and brought our allies and enemies the progress reports - along with the negative reports we heard in our 'hometown' papers and TV news - day by day, week after week, thru April, May, June -> today?  We'd know that our troops are doing difficult work and doing it well.  We would have been celebrating our troops steady progress these past three months - and celebrating the hard won freedom for the Iraqi people. Our enemies would be looking for cover and cowering.

 

What if the press had thoroughly exposed  Saddam's brutal regime?  Would anyone dare shelter his loyalists? Would anyone dare claim that the Iraqi people were better off before our troops removed Saddam? Would Americans support our troops and our efforts in Iraq, no matter the difficulties?

 

We didn't have a national victory celebration for the troops after April 9. Our CIC was critized in the press for thanking the troops. We haven't really cheered our troops as a nation since. The nation of Australia gave their troops a ticker tape parade down the streets of Sydney. Our press gave our troops Hillary Clinton. Our press highlights casualties, critics and Saddam daily. They continue to follow the lead of the NY Times, and ignore CENTCOM (Check the accuracy records of both. March will do). The press is failing America, failing the troops.

 

On March 19 our troops went into Iraq - facing the unknown, knowing Saddam's history. They took out command and control, Saddam's Republican Guard, and were welcomed across Iraq by the vast majority of the Iraqi people. Over 24 million Iraqis - given mountains of weapons by our enemies - refused to use them against our troops. By April 9, the troops had liberated Baghdad. For the next three months, our troops have continued to "perform magnificently", in the words of Gen. Franks - steadily working to stabilize Iraq - after 30 years of oppression and terror and neglect under Saddam's regime. Three months - and the press is still asking "are we there, yet?"

 

Our troops volunteer. They serve in heat and sand far from home and family - on the hunt, and always watchful for the remaining desperate, dishonorable Saddam loyalists and terrorist-wannabes. Some give all.

 

On July 4, 158 Screaming Eagles reenlisted near the Tigris River in Baghdad - with comments like, "You get to reenlist in Iraq with the general, How cool is that?" and "I would have reenlisted anyway without the bonus," "She's glad I'm going to stay in." (wife back home with two children), "When we get back, I'm going to put in for Drill Sergeant," "I'm enjoying the daylights out of the Army. Everyone else should." 

 

To quote CNN's Martin Savidge, "Where do they get young men like this?"

 

Our press has already forgotten, it seems, the character of our men and women serving in Iraq. Our troops are not victims or fools. They know why they serve. While we mourn the fallen and remember their families and friends, we honor the fallen by celebrating the success of their comrades - reporting the daily good works of those 146,000 and more brave American military men and women and our Coalition allies who love freedom enough to risk their lives in Iraq for our liberty.

 

Saddam is NOT coming back.

 

Our troops rock!

 

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[Adrastus]

There's not a lot of excuse for the bottom feeders we call reporters to have failed to pass on any of this except it just don't fit. As the NYT banner says: "We print all the news that fits."

[pierrem15]

All I can say is thank you for such a great post.

You are so right. The press is absolutely disgusting. I think they all saw the events of April 9th and said to themselves, "We have to do something, anything, to cut Bush down for the Democrats." And all they have done is grossly exaggerate the negative, hoping that they will break the faith of the American people in Bush's leadership and restore themselves as the arbitrators of American political life. May they rot in h---.

[happygrl]

FABULOUS POST!!!!!

Ernest, this deserves a MUCH wider read. Please ping your list !

All the wonderful daily good news that our press is NOT reporting !

[boxerblues]

good info bump

[BOBTHENAILER]

Post of the day, IMHO. Great job.

Too bad the lamestream press won't report the stunning efficiency our troops are using in eradicating the scum over there.

[ChadGore]

Thank you !! Why isn't the press reporting *any* of this stuff ?

[Travis McGee]

Forty Seersucker anti-ship missiles were discovered and confiscated by 1st Armored Division (AD) forces in a Baghdad suburb. Coalition personnel will destroy the missiles.

WTF?????

Are these being "donated" by Iraq or Russia to use as anti armor missiles??

[Marie Antoinette]

WOW! Great post! I listen every morning to NPR (the only talk radio available on my way to school) and you'd think we're getting our behinds kicked around if that's all you every heard. Thanks for posting all this, it's very eye opening.

Bump