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Letter to American Troops about Iraq War *Anti-War People Please Read*

JasonH

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Subject: FW: From the Commanding Officer at MWSS-171 to his Marines.
Date: Tue, 16 Dec 2003 09:08:36 -0800


Marines and Sailors,

As we approach the end of the year I think it is important to share a few thoughts about what you‘ve accomplished directly, in some cases, and indirectly in many others. I am speaking about what the Bush Administration and each of you has contributed by wearing the uniform, because the fact that you wear the uniform contributes 100% to the capability of the nation to send a few onto the field to execute national policy. As you read about these achievements you area part of I would call your attention to two things:

1. This is good news that hasn‘t been fit to print or report on TV.

2. It is much easier to point out the errors a man makes when he makes the tough decisions, rarely is the positive as aggressively pursued.

Since President Bush declared an end to major combat on May 1...... the first battalion of the new Iraqi Army has graduated and is on active duty.

... over 60,000 Iraqis now provide security to their fellow citizens.

... nearly all of Iraq‘s 400 courts are functioning.

... the Iraqi judiciary is fully independent.

... on Monday, October 6 power generation hit 4,518 megawatts-exceeding the prewar average.

... all 22 universities and 43 technical institutes and colleges are open, as are nearly all primary and secondary schools.

... by October 1, Coalition forces had rehab-ed over 1,500 schools - 500 more than scheduled.

... teachers earn from 12 to 25 times their former salaries.

... all 240 hospitals and more than 1200 clinics are open.

... doctors salaries are at least eight times what they were under
Saddam.

... pharmaceutical distribution has gone from essentially nothing to 700 tons in May to a current total of 12,000 tons.

... the Coalition has helped administer over 22 million vaccinations to Iraq‘s children.

... a Coalition program has cleared over 14,000 kilometers of Iraq‘s 27,000 kilometers of weed-choked canals which now irrigate tens of thousands of farms. This project has created jobs for more than 100,000 Iraqi men and women.

... we have restored over three-quarters of prewar telephone services and over two-thirds of the potable water production.

... there are 4,900 full-service telephone connections. We expect 50,000
by year-end.

... the wheels of commerce are turning. From bicycles to satellite dishes to cars and trucks, businesses are coming to life in all major cities and towns.

... 95 percent of all prewar bank customers have service and first-time customers are opening accounts daily.

... Iraqi banks are making loans to finance businesses.

... the central bank is fully independent.

... Iraq has one of the worlds most growth-oriented investment and banking laws.

... Iraq has a single, unified currency for the first time in 15 years.

... satellite TV dishes are legal.

... foreign journalists aren‘t on 10-day visas paying mandatory and extortionate fees to the Ministry of Information for "minders" and other
government spies.

... there is no Ministry of Information.

... there are more than 170 newspapers.

... you can buy satellite dishes on what seems like every street corner.

... foreign journalists (and everyone else) are free to come and go.

... a nation that had not one single element - legislative, judicial or executive - of a representative government, now does.

... in Baghdad alone residents have selected 88 advisory councils. Baghdad‘s first democratic transfer of power in 35 years happened when
the city council elected its new chairman.

... today in Iraq chambers of commerce, business, school and professional organizations are electing their leaders all over the country.

... 25 ministers, selected by the most representative governing body in Iraq‘s history, run the day-to-day business of government.

... the Iraqi government regularly participates in international events. Since July the Iraqi government has been represented in over two dozen international meetings, including those of the UN General Assembly, the Arab League, the World Bank and IMF and, today, the Islamic Conference Summit. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs today announced that it is reopening over 30 Iraqi embassies around the world.

... Shia religious festivals that were all but banned, aren‘t.

... for the first time in 35 years, in Karbala thousands of Shiites celebrate the pilgrimage of the 12th Imam.

... the Coalition has completed over 13,000 reconstruction projects, large and small, as part of a strategic plan for the reconstruction of Iraq.

... Uday and Queasy are dead - and no longer feeding innocent Iraqis to the zoo lions, raping the young daughters of local leaders to force
cooperation, torturing Iraq‘s soccer players for losing games, or murdering critics.

... children aren‘t imprisoned or murdered when their parents disagree with the government.

... political opponents aren‘t imprisoned, tortured, executed, maimed, or are forced to watch their families die for disagreeing with Saddam.

... millions of longsuffering Iraqis no longer live in perpetual terror.

... Saudis will hold municipal elections.

... Qatar is reforming education to give more choices to parents.

... Jordan is accelerating market economic reforms.

... the Nobel Peace Prize was awarded for the first time to an Iranian -- a Muslim woman who speaks out with courage for human rights, for democracy
and for peace.

... Saddam is gone.

... Iraq is free.

... President Bush has not faltered or failed.

... Yet, little or none of this information has been published by the Press corps that prides itself on bringing you all the news that‘s important.

Iraq under US lead control has come further in six months than Germany did in seven years or Japan did in nine years following WWII. Military
deaths from fanatic Nazi‘s, and Japanese numbered in the thousands and continued for over three years after WWII victory was declared.

It took the US over four months to clear away the twin tower debris, let alone attempt to build something else in its place.

Now, take into account that Congress fought President Bush on every aspect of his handling of this country‘s war and the post-war reconstruction;
and that they continue to claim on a daily basis on national TV that this conflict has been a failure.

Taking everything into consideration, even the unfortunate loss of our brothers and sisters in this conflict, do you think anyone else in the world could have accomplished as much as the United States and the Bush administration in so short a period of time?

These are things worth writing about. Get the word out. Write to someone
you think may be able to influence our Congress or the press to tell the story.

Above all, be proud that you are a part of this historical precedent.

God Bless you all. Have a great Holiday.

Semper Fidelis.
----

Gonna forword that to everyone in my address book specially the ones who disagree with me one thinking the war was worth it (Yes I was pro iraq war, but I didn‘t expect much to come from the WMD statements. Although there could be some since he did use em before on the Kurds.)
 
Raises questions about the appropriateness of a military commander canvassing for his C&C.

"... President Bush has not faltered or failed."

"Taking everything into consideration, even the unfortunate loss of our brothers and sisters in this conflict, do you think anyone else in the world could have accomplished as much as the United States and the Bush administration in so short a period of time?

These are things worth writing about. Get the word out. Write to someone you think may be able to influence our Congress or the press to tell the story."

As for those two points. He‘s unhappy with the presentation of the situation in Iraq. He serious?

Thousands of children born with serious defects and Depleted Uranium (DU) is a serious suspect.

http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/national/95178_du12.shtml

http://www.rimbaud.freeserve.co.uk/dhap99f.html

http://www.sundayherald.com/32522

His use of the word "Coalition" is warming to the heart. Those Eritrean, Honduran, Latvian and Columbian resources are really paying off.

Bottom line, if you want to praise your troops, then do so.

But leave the propaganda to the media and the politicians. It crosses some lines. And I‘d hardly say that the troops aren‘t getting the support they deserve from the population. It‘s hardly a protesting situation i.e. Vietnam era. As for support to the troops from the government, look up medical and health cutbacks to the DVA by the Bush administration.
 
While it is inappropriate for a soldier to make such partisan comments, it is also wholly inappropriate for the press to report only the negative news. They are supposed to be reporting news, not just news that fulfills their own particular agenda.

If you look at some of the blogs put up by ACTUAL IRAQIS, you will find that all the things he says about hospitals and improved infrastructure are true: but nobody reports on it. You will find that most Iraqis are thrilled to have the US presence to sort out their country, and not really happy that militant islamists have suddenly appeared from other countries to foment trouble in Iraq, under the guise of "helping their Iraqi brothers". Where, they ask, was all this brotherhood when Iraqis were trying to escape Saddam?

There are two sides to every story, and while this communication is far too partisan about how great Bush is, most of the facts quoted are correct. This is because the Marine in question is probably "Frustrated, frustrated, frustrated" at the ignorance of the American public (as spoon-fed by the news media) and is trying to do something to counteract the obvious negative effect on morale that watching these continuous negative reports is bound to have on his troops.

If you leave the propaganda to the politicians and the press, you only hear what *they* want you to hear. As a citizen, he has every right to encourage everyone to report the facts to everyone they know. As a military commander, it is his responsibility to make sure that the American public knows that its army is serving the needs of its nation. The other 10% of the communication which is strictly political and partisan is outside the scope of his authority.

Only the United States could have accomplished so much so quickly. But it wasn‘t necessarily Bush who has never faltered or failed. The Patriot act, and the quashed Patriot II (some of whose provisions were passed on the sly the day Saddam was captured) show that he is no friend of liberty.

Upshot is, although there is a definite political slant to this message, most of what he says is true. I don‘t see that babies having birth defects which *may* be due to DU rounds is necessarily deserving of more attention than the fact that the hospitals are now able to serve more Iraqis than ever before because the have supplies and doctors for a change.

=======
Iraqi blog: http://iraqthemodel.blogspot.com/

He has links to most of the others.
 
Interesting statement about the media that is based on the idealology that the media is a public institution that has some lofty goal of ensuring that the public is educated in a fair and balanced manner. The reality is that the media is a private enterprise with the sole objective of making money. And headlines are what sells the paper. "Dog bites man" is not news, "Man bites dog" is.
 
"..you can buy satellite dishes on what seems like every street corner..."

Who the fuc* could give a ****? Anyone who would argue that bringing satellite television to the Iraqi people was THE BEST USE OF HUNDREDS OF BILLIONS OF DOLLARS is criminally stupid.

http://www.aidsandafrica.com/photo.html

chr!st, it doesn‘t matter anymore whether or not "it was worth it". it‘s over, the money is gone. all this "pro-war" and "anti-war" talk is just tripe redundancy at this point.

who was EVER arguing that invading iraq would yield NO fruits?
 
That would be beautiful if it were true, Jay.

The person who wrote this does not cite any sources or give any evidence.

He may as well have said that thanks to the yanks, the Iraqi‘s have a new lunar base on the moon.

As well he states that "thousands" of people died in the occupation of Germany and Japan after the second world war due to fanatical Nazis and the Japanese??? This guy needs to be smacked in the head with a history book...

Although the Nazis had planned to have SS "werewolves" sabotaging the allied occupiers, they ended up being a rag tag bunch of teenagers who were not fit for frontline fighting. The most serious thing they did was assassinate the German mayor of a town called Aachen. In reality, these once Hitler youth memebers were mostly involved in petty crimes such as stealing or graffiti and by 1947 they had dissappeared.

Here is a link of a recent article about this. And the lies that the bush administration spreads.
 
I don‘t believe they have any lofty goals, I‘m not that blind. However, I buy papers to read the news. If I wanted to read entertainment, I could buy other things. However, just as Gresham‘s law (an economic law the pertains to counterfeit and clipped currency) states that "bad money drives out good", bad news drives out good.

There was a time that reporters tried to get the news, and put it in the papers, especially if it was unpopular. Now they don‘t bother. If they‘re not going to distribute news, then why shouldn‘t I?
 
Jay Hunter, I just want to stop you and say, Dude, WTF?! Jay, we here in Canada get CNN and Fox, so we are fully aware of the official propaganda doctrine of the US. No need for that passionate manifest. If you truly believe in the things you said above, you would make a great proganda officer in the Soviet Army.
So far there has been no justification for that war, the way the entire world see‘s it is that Bush sent american GI‘s to die in the sand only to appease his buddies in the oil industry. Remember war is not naive ideals like "freedom", human rights or that type of bull, that the media loves to use, it‘s money. Pure and simple. Always has been and will be.
Oh, and by the way, that whole Bush character must be one of the worst presidents your country has seen, I truly feel sorry. I‘m a Wesley Clark supporter.
 
Same old tired "war for oil" rhetoric....


Many Americans actually feel that Bush is one of the best presidents they‘ve ever had, actually.

If you popped in on American site, and they were discussing Canadian politics with the same generalizations and certainty that we use here when discussing American politics - a lot of you would be indignant :rolleyes: Armchair experts like I‘ve never seen, frankly. The funny thing is, growing up, we stereotyped the Yanks as pompous know-it-alls....

Personally, I think, the Democrats currently have no credible candidates - their stances are weak at best; goofy at worst.
 
Remember war is not naive ideals like "freedom", human rights or that type of bull, that the media loves to use, it‘s money. Pure and simple. Always has been and will be.
So your interest in the Canadian Military (ideally, a war-fighting organization) is to pursue the finacial interests of Canadian politicians?

Talk about naive - it‘s believing all the left wing poop that you read and hear
 
I think one of the main reasons for invading Iraq was to eliminate the threat that Sadam posed to Israel, as you know the war was influenced by Paul Wolfowitz, neoconservative of jewish origin, who convinced Washington that Sadam was an "imminent threat".
 
I am not a long-haired lefty, more of a conservative military-enthusiast, but I do not like what is happening in the US becuase of the conflict. Actually the president is only strongly supported by rednecks from Iowa, Missouri, Alabama etc. This president is very "unique", he is the first illegal american president, a very unsophisticated man, Bush seems to be only a mere public relations character of Washington, the deciding left to Neocons.
 
Threat to israel? Maybe to stop an arab war from starting but israel is in no threat from iraq. If canada went to war with israel we‘d get our *** kicked. (Obviously iraq too) Their like a mini united states with their fighter aircraft, attack helicopters, main battle tanks and troops. It‘s a shame all the innocent people who are getting hurt in that piticular conflict.
 
Fubar - You don‘t have a clue what you‘re talking about :rolleyes:
 
Much of those instances are either false or inflated. One such comment that hit me right away was the one that said all 240 hospitals are open.

I know for a fact that isn‘t true. Not more than a week ago I saw a story on the Iraqi police and how they were the majority in hospital from insurgent fighting and it was hard to treat them properly because many of the major hospitals in Bagdad were looted at the "end of the war"...
 
Unless I personally know someone that goes to Baghdad and visits the hospitals - I don‘t fully believe anybody‘s version.

I read in the local rag (NOT a conservative newspaper) recently about a Network correspondent in Iraq that purposely had children playing near and posing with, unexploded munitions to "beef up" the story she was doing.

I can tell you this - FROM ACTUAL soldiers I have talked to, or heard as speakers at different functions (non-political functions). Every single one of them has issues with the way their work, and success, is being portrayed, by the mainstream media

I don‘t know what has happened, since I left Canada. Most of my family was small-C conservative. Most soldiers I knew were conservative. A lot of the (seemingly)older guys, even on this site, manage to disagree with some (or all) of the US policies, without sounding like some gullible kid, or a flaky left wing, pie-in-the-sky flunky. You buy into everything, and have, from what I see ZERO actual experience in ANY US Politics.

I can tell you this, because I HAVE lived in both countries. The US is not perfect, nor is Canada. Bush is not perfect. Chretien was? Mulroney? Some of the stereotypes I read on this site - by far, obliterate any stereotype I have heard Americans utter about Canadians. I have heard them all, on both sides of the border.

Corrupt? I have applied for a few Government jobs in the US. NEVER have I been told to go see my local politician, like I heard repeatedly, in Canada.

Listening to you guys spout your opinions on American politics is akin to listening to a bunch of Texans debate the merits of a Constitutional Monarchy.
 
After I was done ranting, I realized that this probably shouldn‘t have been in the "Canadian Army" forum.....thus the move down here

Cheers
 
Originally posted by Rafal_L:
[qb] Jay Hunter, I just want to stop you and say, Dude, WTF?! Jay, we here in Canada get CNN and Fox.....[/qb]
If that‘s the Jay/Jason Hunter I know, he IS Canadian. Jay it‘s Alexa... :p
 
Are we forgetting that the US is installing their kind of capitalism? YAY, salaries for doctors and teachers have gone up...what..so they can be as unaffordable to the average Iraqi as they are in the United States to the average American? Great, lets help create a great new consumerist culture that will further pollute and destroy the envrionment. Lets spread the kind of moral decency where people will do almost anything to make a buck. That‘s a bit too sarcastic though I think.

Note: Before the first gulf war, I have been told that Iraq had one of the best education and free healthcare systems in the world. (not confirmed but I have heard it from several professors when I asked about it) According to them, Saddam built that. Both they and I do not support anything else that man did however. Oh, and I am not a communist either, I just don‘t like the way western society has become either.

Sure there has been a lot of good, and yes, America has done something good I think for the long term. I disagree with the partisan comments of that officer, but it is always good for moral to let them know about the good they have done. We have lost the original problems with the war as the US administration changed it‘s focus from WMD to freedom. That is a second run excuse and they did violate international law technically. (However, really technically, things like this have been done before but it is hotly debated whether or not it can be considered customary international law) The legitimacy of the invasion basically reverts back to power politics...nobody is going to do anything about it...so they can do it, have done it, and may very well continue to do it.
 
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