It Ain't Necessarily So. [Army Spec Ops letter from Iraq - a must read!]

E-mail from SOCOM ~ Courtesy of Freeper Lexington Green | 01 Jul 2003 | Mark w/ Army Spec Ops

[BagCamAddict]

Thanks Piper! Great read!!

[Fearless Flyers]

Thanks Tonk,

Copy, Paste, and indexed in research file.

I appreciate all our Patriots do and wish I could be of more service to them.

Matthew

[finnman69]

bump

[finnman69]

this has been posted at polipundit.com AND andrewsullivan.com


http://www.polipundit.com/
Tuesday, July 22, 2003
Iraq - The Truth

Yesterday, there was an e-mail posted on Free Republic, purportedly from someone in Special Operations serving in Iraq. I was skeptical about the accuracy of the e-mail, but today there's some indirect confirmation of its authenticity and accuracy.

Here's an excerpt from the e-mail:
Our search and destroy missions are largely at night, free of reporters and generally terrifying to those brave warriors of Allah. The only thing that frightens them more is hearing the word "Gitmo". The word is out that a trip to Guantanimo Bay is not a Caribbean vacation and they usually start squealing like the little mice they are, when an interrogator mentions "Gitmo".
From the Washington Post tonight:
Threats to ship the recalcitrant captives to the U.S. detention facility at Guantanamo Bay on the eastern end of Cuba were especially helpful in encouraging them to talk, officials said.
I think that the e-mail is the real thing. Go read it to see what the lying socialist treasonous liberal media isn't telling you.


http://andrewsullivan.com
Tuesday, July 22, 2003

WHAT THE PRESS WON'T TELL YOU: I keep hearing - anecdotally and from forwarded emails, that things are going far better in Iraq than the anti-war media wants you to believe. Here's an extract from a letter from a soldier out there doing God's work in putting back together a ravaged country. It was posted on Free Republic, but it seems genuine to me. Here's a small extract:
The only reason the GIs are pissed (not demoralized) is that they cannot touch, must less waste, those taunting bags of gas that scream in their faces and riot on cue when they spot a camera man from ABC, BBC, CBS, CNN or NBC. If they did, then they know the next nightly news will be about how chaotic things are and how much the Iraqi people hate us.
Some do. But the vast majority don't and more and more see that the GIs don't start anything, are by-and-large friendly, and very compassionate, especially to kids and old people. I saw a bunch of 19 year-olds fromthe 82nd Airborne not return fire coming from a mosque until they got a group of elderly civilians out of harm's way. So did the Iraqis.
A bunch of bad guys used a group of women and children as human shields.The GIs surrounded them and negotiated their surrender fifteen hours later and when they discovered a three year-old girl had been injured by the big tough guys throwing her down a flight of stairs, the GIs called in a MedVac helicopter to take her and her mother to the nearest field hospital. The Iraqis watched it all, and there hasn't been a problem inthat neighborhood since. How many such stories, and there are hundreds of them, never get reported in the fair and balanced press? You know, nada.
The civilians who have figured it out faster than anyone are the local teenagers.
They watch the GIs and try to talk to them and ask questions about America and Now wear wrap-around sunglasses, GAP T- shirts, Dockers (or even better Levis with the red tags) and Nikes (or Egyptian knock-offs, but with the "swoosh") and love to listen to AFN when the GIs play it on their radios.
They participate less and less in the demonstrations and help keep us informed when a wannabe bad-ass shows up in the neighborhood.
The younger kids are going back to school again, don't have to listen to some mullah rant about the Koran ten hours a day, and they get a hot meal.
They see the same GIs who man the corner checkpoint, helping clear the playground, install new swingsets and create soccer fields. I watched a bunch of kids playing baseball in one playground, under the supervision of a couple of GIs from Oklahoma. They weren't very good but were having fun, probably more than most Little Leaguers
The place is still a mess but most of it has been for years. But the Hospitals are open and are in the process of being brought into the 21stCentury. The MOs and visiting surgeons from home are teaching their docs new techniques and One American pharmaceutical company (you know, the kind that all the hippies like to scream about as greedy) donated enough medicine to stock 45 hospital pharmacies for a year.
Read the whole thing. Why do very, very few of these stories appear in the press? I think we know the answer. My sympathies lie with these men and women doing a difficult job extremely well. We are making progress. Don't let the BBC or Dick "Chicken Little" Morris get you down.
- 12:58:22 PM

[judicial meanz]

Good post cowgirl!

The more truth that comes about about the media behavior that goes on over there, the more the media looks like the fools they are.

I love it. Spoken from the heart of a true SF soldier. Great read.

[Ragtime Cowgirl]

Thank you for posting the links and excerpts, finnman69. Outstanding.

What the awesome Andrew Sullivan would surely say if he knew more about FR and Freepers:

It was posted on Free Republic, but it seems so it is genuine to me. (^;

We may have different viewpoints about issues (unlike the press/left), Freepers are the first to demand accountable and accuracy (again, unlike the mainstream (inter)national press/left).

Imho.

[Ragtime Cowgirl]

Spoken from the heart of a true SF soldier. Great read.

Cuts through the daily whine, doesn't it? Please pass it on, jm...and keep it up. Most of the world still gets the news from the people who are giving their pens to Hamas suicide bombers.

This good Soldier does a great job of verifying what CENTCOM.mil and DoD, blogs from Iraq, letter home have been reporting for months.

"I don't find myself in any quandry. I'm a soldier."  - Lt. Gen. Ricardo Sanchez, Commander, Combined Joint Task Force Seven (CJTF-7) , July 23, 2003 - CENTCOM briefing.

[Ragtime Cowgirl]

Please check out Andrew Sullivan's websight today. It's a thing of beauty - and truth. He's actually looking at the big picture in Iraq, and asking for letters from the troops:

 

Please share your accounts  re. Iraq ~

 

* or say thanks *

 

 andrew@andrewsullivan.com

 

An excerpt from Andrew's websight today:

 

THE OTHER SIDE: With that in mind, here's an appeal to anyone out there with firsthand experiences in Iraq today - in the military or elsehwere - to send me your own impressions of what's going on. I don't trust most of the journalists, I'm afraid. Here's part of one email I just received:

I left early this morning for Mosul then to a town in Northern Iraq called Duhok. It is a Kurdish city and a bigtime market place. The people there really love the Americans... more than anywhere else. It was a very cool experience. Kids wanting to touch you and thank you for getting rid of Saddam. I had one kid saying... "mister... Saddam very bad ... bush very good..." and repeating it over and over. It was a very long day and I am glad to be back at Qwest... Northern Iraq is soo pretty with the mountains and some water. The Kurdish people are very friendly and honest. One of the soldiers dropped money accidentally out of his pocket and didn't notice. A whole group of kids came up and pointed to it saying " Mister your money..." Most kids in shitty places like this would just steal the cash and run...

---

Oh, and you might want to let Mr. Sullivan know you're a Freeper.   See #186   (^;

[Ragtime Cowgirl]

Check out #184 and #188.

It's a good day in America.

[DollyCali]

Thanks for the "heads up".. and also enjoyed ALL the good stuff on your profile page.

Nice "finding" you again !!!

[Ragtime Cowgirl]

Welcome to the war after the war, Dolly. Thanks for taking time out of your hectic days to stop by and cheer us up. (^:

Has the flood receded, yet?

[Ragtime Cowgirl]

The friendliest spot on the internet - and longest continuous running thread at Free Republic:

 

USO Canteen FReeper Style ~ Pancakes on Wednesday ~ 23 July 2003

 Open 24/7 for the troops, and all who support them, since Oct. 2001.

 

 

[DollyCali]

Sent out the letter to my email list today...here is a response I received from friend in Boston. He is Lib (of course).. but was in Peace Corps for 8 years in Iran & married an Iranian woman. That was 30 years ago... He has been a freind since we were in 4th grade.. was our class valdictorian & later educated in the East for all degrees & is now one of the world transportation experts & does consulting worldwide. Pre war he kept referring to the "war monger in the White House". sure many of you will/did receive similar responses.

The letter from Iraq was not at all reassuring. Sure, the media see it different. They're still far from objective.

I'm not sure what your take on the letter was. I found very disturbing the simplistic thinking that the military demands and nurtures. Why aren't the Iraqis more submissive and appreciative. After all -- they're ragheads, liked by the hippies and the air-fairies warriors of Allah longing for a paradise of 72 slave girls human garbage whose neighbors are goatherders and weird dudes

Ah, but what wonderful opportunities to advance up the military ranks this all presents! In the end, our friend loves war. It helps him define his manhood. And what could be more important than that?

[Ragtime Cowgirl]

Dolly, I'm sorry you posted that. It's pure liberal BS of course - and typical. Perhaps you could remind your friend just what these Soldiers go through to protect HIS right to be stupid.

Oppressed people around the world aren't calling for the UN, the Peace Corps or the DNC - they are asking for the US MILITARY to help, knowing our guys DO - with little thanks or recognition from those who reap the benefits of freedom in America.

Dolly, your friend is a wanker. Sorry.

[PhilDragoo]

I had good response from sending the letter from the colonel.

Now our people got Qusay and Uday.

Freedom is God's gift to every man--our Declaration says we hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are endowed with certain rights by their Creator, that among these are Life, Liberty & the pursuit of Happiness.

Our troops are doing God's work--and will then come home.

[txradioguy]

I'm gonna send Mr. Sullivan the stories I've posted on ehre for you to read. I hope they give him a first hand view of what's been going on over here. Plus I'm a FReeper to boot. That should count for something. Wish me luck

[Ragtime Cowgirl]

Thank you! I am so glad you stopped by. Linked your radio link to my homepage, and Tonkin posts it at the Canteen - of course. You are in our thoughts and prayers - and I promise that your fellow Americans are hunting for the truth out of Iraq - and sharing it with others.

You might want to tell the troops to contact Andrew - or have their families do so. The 'career' soldiers who look to the UN and DNC are probably sending 'stories', too.

Did I tell you how proud we are of the job you and the troops are doing in Iraq? Lt. Gen. Sanchez told Dep. SOD Wolfowitz that you guys have, in a few short months, made improvements across Iraq that Gen. Sanchez says it took them a year to do in Kosovo...a fine bit of ammo to use on the wankers.

Good luck! Andrew Sullivan is serious about this, imho.

You take care of business - and each other. We'll handle the homefront.

[4Godsoloved..Hegave]

bttt

[TEXOKIE]

Bump this fine thread!

For those who wish to support our troops with other Freepers on a spiritual level, we invite you to participate in our Troop Prayer Threads. The most recent one can be found here:



http://freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/917197/posts

[Ragtime Cowgirl]

Thank you, TEXOKIE.