News fro Iraq

[Elite1]

News from Iraq

Check out this letter from Iraq, note the time of day...



Amazing, first-hand report of the President's visit with the troops on Thanksgiving Day.



An Email from a Captain in Iraq



We knew there was a dinner planned with ambassador Bremer and LTG Sanchez. There were 600 seats available and all the units in the division weretasked with filling a few tables. Naturally, the 501st MI battalion got ourtable. Soldiers were grumbling about having to sit through another dog-and-pony show, so we had to pick soldiers to attend. I chose not to go.



But, about 1500 the G2, LTC Devan, came up to me and with a smile, asked me to come to dinner with him, to meet him in his office at 1600 and bring a camera. I didn't really care about getting a picture with Sanchez or Bremer, but when the division's senior intelligence officer asks you to go, you go. We were seated in the chow hall, fully decorated for thanksgiving when aaaaallllll kinds of secret service guys showed up.



That was my first clue, because Bremer's been here before and his personal security detachment is not that big. Then BG Dempsey got up to speak, and he welcomed ambassador Bremer and LTG Sanchez. Bremer thanked us all and pulled out a piece of paper as if to give a speech. He mentioned that the President had given him this thanksgiving speech to give to the troops. He then paused and said that the senior man present should be the one to give it. He then looked at Sanchez, who just smiled.



Bremer then said that we should probably get someone more senior to read the speech. Then, from behind the camouflage netting, the President of the United States came around. The mess hall actually erupted with hollering. Troops bounded to their feet with shocked smiles and just began cheering with all their hearts. The building actually shook. It was just unreal. I was absolutely stunned. Not only for the obvious, but also because I was only two tables away from the podium. There he stood, less than thirty feet away from me! The cheering went on and on and on.



Soldiers were hollering, cheering, and a lot of them were crying. There was not a dry eye at my table. When he stepped up to the cheering, I could clearly see tears running down his cheeks. It was the most surreal moment I've had in years. Not since my wedding and Aaron being born. Here was this man, our President, came all the way around the world, spending 17 hours on an airplane and landing in the most dangerous airport in the world, where a plane was shot out of the sky not six days before.



Just to spend two hours with his troops. Only to get on a plane and spend another 17 hours flying back. It was a great moment, and I will never forget it. He delivered his speech, which we all loved, when he looked right at me and held his eyes on me. Then he stepped down and was just mobbed by the soldiers. He slowly worked his way all the way around the chow hall and shook every last hand extended. Every soldier who wanted a photo with the President got one. I made my way through the line, got dinner, then wolfed it down as he was still working the room.



You could tell he was really enjoying himself. It wasn't just a photo opportunity. This man was actually enjoying himself! He worked his way over the course of about 90 minutes towards my side of the room. Meanwhile, I took the opportunity to shake a few hands. I got a picture with Ambassador Bremer, Talabani (acting Iraqi president) and Achmed Chalabi (another member of the ruling council) and Condaleeza Rice, who was there with him.



I felt like I was drunk. He was getting closer to my table so I went back over to my seat. As he passed and posed for photos, he looked my in the eye and "How you doin', captain. " I smiled and said "God bless you, sir. " To which he responded "I'm proud of what you do, captain. " Then moved on.



*****

 

[Elite1]

Stuff the liberal media won't report... There have been 326 murders of US citizens in Washington D. C. since March 2003, yet you do

not hear a cacophony from the liberal media to pull out of Washington D. C. In fact, these

murders are not reported in every newscast every day; they are not reported at all by Dan

"Blather" et al----RVM



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 vaccination doses 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 Quesay 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 bring 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 almost every Democrat leader in the House and Senate has

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 sons and

daughters 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?

 

[Elite1]

The British Left





Open letter to George W. Bush:



"Today you arrive in my country... and I bid you welcome. You will find yourself assailed on every hand by some pretty pretentious characters collectively known as the British left. They traditionally believe they have a monopoly on morality and that your recent actions preclude you from the club. You opposed and destroyed the world's most blood-encrusted dictator. This is quite unforgivable. I beg you to take no notice.



The British left intermittently erupts like a pustule upon the buttock of a rather good country. Seventy years ago it opposed mobilisation against Adolf Hitler and worshipped the other genocide, Josef Stalin. It has marched for Mao, Ho Chi Minh, Khrushchev, Brezhnev and Andropov. It has slobbered over Ceausescu and Mugabe. It has demonstrated against everything and everyone American for a century.



Broadly speaking, it hates your country first, mine second. ... For a decade there was nothing really to hate. But thank the Lord for his limitless mercy. Now they can applaud Saddam, Bin Laden, Kim Jong-Il... . and hate a God-fearing Texan. So hallelujah and have a good time. "



--Novelist Frederick Forsyth

 

[merryman]

Wonderfull stuff; too bad for the country and the world that the "hate bushers" are so full of bitterness over losing the White House that none of the positive aspects mean a thing.

They will dredge up, manufacture and exploit ever conceivable argument and criticism immaginable to try to undermine the Bush administration, allways couching it in supposed rational arguments and all the while denying that it is a hate Bush thing, and it is all aimed at getting rid of that guy who had the temerity to oust the left from the Presidency.

Notice that even Fox news, that the left trys to portray as being right leaning has hardly touched on the positive things happening in Iraq, but daily they repeat over and over every tid bit of bad news and tally and re tally ever American death and injury.



Bring us more of the positive.



Vaughn

 

[JConley]

A buddy of mine that I have known for 20 years just got back from Iraq. He works for the Corps of Engineers, and he did the engineering work to rebuild schools in southern Iraq. Its all true.



John

 

[loncray]

Merrymans words, reset for 5 or 6 years ago

They will dredge up, manufacture and exploit every conceivable argument and criticism imaginable to try to undermine the Clinton Administration, always couching it in supposed rational arguments and all the while denying that it is a hate Clinton thing, and it is all aimed at getting rid of that guy who had the temerity to oust the right from the Presidency.

Notice that even CBS News, that the right tries to portray as being left leaning has hardly touched on the positive things happening in America, but daily they repeat over and over every tid bit of bad news and tally and re tally every bit of gossip and slander.



And you wonder why the left and center hates Bush? They had 8 years of lessons in exactly how to hate.

 

[RustyJC]

Re: Merrymans words, reset for 5 or 6 years ago

Originally posted by loncray

And you wonder why the left and center hates Bush?

Actually, I'm seeing a number of Democratic strategists worrying about the current "hate Bush" rhetoric coming from the Democratic side. They are concerned that the "hate" message won't play to the moderates and independents who will ultimately decide the 2004 election, although it's attractive to the far left wing of the Democratic party. In fact, they are concerned that a strident "hate" campaign may turn the moderates and independents toward Bush come election day.



Rusty