Victor Davis Hanson: The other Iraq: An eyewitness account (VDH in Iraq)

jewishworldreview.com ^ | February 23, 2006 | Victor Davis Hanson

[Tolik]

<...snip...> ...Almost every media stereotype about the American military vanishes when visiting frontline bases. The world still sees dated Abu Ghraib photos, not Iraqi civilians receiving topflight care in the emergency room in the American-run hospital in Baghdad.

We hear that the U.S. Army is worn out — propped up by national guardsmen and reserves. Yet young enlistees differ. They claim instead that more mature reservists are a godsend for reconstruction efforts since so many back home were successful contractors, businessmen, teachers and mechanics. Complaints circulate about the weight, not the dearth, of body and truck armor. I saw hundreds of Humvees on the roads, but not one was unarmored. I shot AK-47s with professional Iraqi soldiers and felt far safer amid their professional live fire than back at home at the local municipal range.

Critics dub our military a "mercenary" force and sometimes call for renewal of the draft. But it is hardly a late-imperial Roman legion filled with foreigners and malcontents, but rather a true volunteer force, whose diversity in age, gender, race and religion would shame a university faculty or newsroom. Most of the colonels I met are as well educated as academics, but far more willing to debate and question their own beliefs...

<...snip...>

[StarCMC]

Mega dittos Freema!!

[crazycat]

Tks for the pings.

The MSM is so desperate for failure and on their past form that means it will be a rageing success.

[Rakkasan1]

An Antiwar Message From the Midwest (Dems Call Families of Slain Troops un-American and un-Truthful)
http://www.washtimes.com/op-ed/20060222-085119-6111r.htm

[wmileo]

Thanks. I read the article and went to the website. The MSM has gone too far in not reporting this. The DEMs are already too far over the deep end with this last attempt to dismantle our efforts. The Washington times is great. Wealso need FOX.