Nice Letter to the Press by someone who is there

I found this letter to a good read. Whether you agree with some of the decisions of the US government or not, I think the feelings and opinions related by this soldier are right on the money. There is no larger empowerer of terrorism than the americal main-stream media. They wonder why no one trusts them for info any more. Their own political biases have thrown them off the cliff in regard to informative non-terrosist propaganda reporting.

www.worldtribune.com...

The "World Tribune" is an artificial medium created for right wing propaganda.

It's good to see that they blame genuine media reporting genuine events for the failure of the Bush administration to secure stability in the country it invaded. It aims to take the heat off where it ought to be directed, at the corrupt incompetents who lied to Congress and the people about the rationale for a war, and who continue to lie and mismanage every day in office.

Fortunately the World Tribune has no substantive readership.

Is there anyone else covering Tim Ryan's "letter"?

I dont agree completely with what he is saying but he does have a very valid point about the media only reporting the negative news or the losses on the US side (and this is true of UK as well as US media) but sadly it seems that few people in the US & UK really gives a sh!t if 100, 1000 or even 10000 insurgents are killed and so it rarely gets reported!

Ok, many people will see and will give their opinions on the situation in Iraq.

My husband's company works for the defense department, one of the co-workers came from a mission on Fallujah, for the last three weeks he was as a civilian contractor delivering and setting communication equipment in two cities in Iraq.

He came back two days ago, yesterday he briefed the section of the sauces of the mission at least of delivering and setting the equipment.

Now after that he talk about how the situation in fallujah and the realities of the area.

The first city he went he said that it was completely destroyed and that people were on camps I can not give the name of the city because they did not gave it to him either for security reasons.

The city of Fallujah, have lost of destruction but the US looks like is rebuilding some areas.

The sand dunes around the city has been level down so insurgents will not hide around them.

They will only travel in the darkness due to random attacks.

They will only flew at night also, something that he didn't like but it was security reason the soldiers told him that it was better at night because like that the insurgents will not have a good aim.

When he went in the city he was escorted by a convoy of 30 to 40 armed vehicles.

He was not allowed to walk by himself around the established US base in the city.

And at night it was always mortar attacks around the city.

He said that Iraq was not a place he felt safe, but for some reason having the troops around make him feel secure.

He is happy to be back safe.

Now this is the experience of a civilian first hand accounts.

Good article. Not enough good news of what is happening. Like I said on another post, negative grabs the readers or viewers. But glad to read a solider's account anyway.

Originally posted by GI_WOLVES
Good article. Not enough good news of what is happening. Like I said on another post, negative grabs the readers or viewers. But glad to read a solider's account anyway.

Shepard Smith from Fox News is in Iraq right now and he's trying to give the positive side of what's going on in Iraq.
It was pretty funny watching him try to put a good spin on the situation because about three explosions went off while he was talking and there was a fierce firefight.

He couldn't talk much about the improvements in infrastructue because the entire city he was in had been without running water for days while he was there.

He said there were improvements in one of the cities (Sadr City?) but they couldn't show us because it was too dangerous to travel down there right now.

Even when you go there with the intention of making the situation look good, the reality of the situation gets in the way.

EDIT:
Geraldo is on right now and he's saying that everyday the soldiers find severed heads and headless bodies in Iraq.

Fox News is the most pro-war chennel out there and they are reporting so much bad news, the situation can't be that great.

[edit on 27-1-2005 by AceOfBase]

If you read the blogs by Iraqis in Baghdad such as www.iraqthemodel.com... they say the same thing. The reports of violence are way overblown.

Originally posted by djohnsto77
The reports of violence are way overblown.

You are in denial if you really believe that.
There are car bombs every day, headless bodies ae found every day, Iraqi police and politicians are targeted every day and you want to say that the reports of violence are way overblown?

Wake up to reality my friend.

If you are going to say it's not that bad right now then you'll also have to say that things weren't that bad under Saddam.

[edit on 28-1-2005 by AceOfBase]

As much as I am against the war in Iraq I think that what this soldier said was right on the money. It's quite interesting that the enemy has suffered casualties in the thousands yet I've never seen a single bit of it on the news. Although war may be horrid, the media can make a hangnail look like WWIII.

One need only look at the monthly death count totals to see that the violence going on now is even worse than when the initial Shock and Awe campaign took place.

icasualties.org...

How could a war that is supposed to be a "mission accomplished" be a situation in which more soldiers die every month than when the war first started? It makes no sense other than to conclude that the violence in Iraq is very heightened and anybody trying to downplay it is either fooling themselves or trying to fool you. The numbers don't lie, or do they?

Originally posted by cyberdude78
It's quite interesting that the enemy has suffered casualties in the thousands yet I've never seen a single bit of it on the news. Although war may be horrid, the media can make a hangnail look like WWIII.

It's quite interesting that you think that killing thousands of people is a good thing and that not reporting that Americans are killing thousands of people is an example of media bias.

[edit on 28-1-2005 by AceOfBase]

Originally posted by AceOfBase

Originally posted by djohnsto77
The reports of violence are way overblown.

You are in denial if you really believe that.
There are car bombs every day, healess bodies ae found every day, Iraqi police and politicians are targeted every day and you want to say that the reports of violence are way overblown?

Wake up to reality my friend.

If you are going to say it's not that bad right now then you'll also have to say that things weren't that bad under Saddam.

I'm not saying that everything is OK, but it is a large country and large areas are peaceful and the car bombs, while horrible, aren't blowing up on every street corner as it might seem by watching the press coverage.

Also, Saddam's rape rooms, torture chambers and ethnic cleansing operations weren't televised for the world to see.

Originally posted by AceOfBase
It's quite interesting that you think that killing thousands of people is a good thing and that not reporting that Americans are killing thousands of people is an example of media bias.

[edit on 28-1-2005 by AceOfBase]

I think that we may have a misunderstanding. I never said that killing thousands of people was ok. Simply put I would like to hear the results for both sides of the war. I'm tired of some saying that the US is invincible but I'm also tired of hearing how much we suck. All I'm looking for is some hard facts, not US propaganda.

Originally posted by cyberdude78

I think that we may have a misunderstanding. I never said that killing thousands of people was ok.

OK, sorry if I didn't get what you were saying.
It just that the guy in the article stated:
"In Fallujah, the enemy death toll has exceeded 1,500 and still is climbing. Put one in the win column for the good guys, right?"

I thought that you might have been agreeing with his point of view.
If not, sorry for jumping on you.
I should have paid more attention to your comment that you were opposed to the Iraq war.

Originally posted by cyberdude78

I think that we may have a misunderstanding. I never said that killing thousands of people was ok. Simply put I would like to hear the results for both sides of the war. I'm tired of some saying that the US is invincible but I'm also tired of hearing how much we suck. All I'm looking for is some hard facts, not US propaganda.

Regardless on where you stand in this, cyberdude has it right on the money when he wants hard facts, not US propaganda. I am against the war but I want the information that I base my opinion on to be sound. This particular article has some valid points, but the source of where it is published raises an eyebrow. I have a cousin that was killed last year over in Iraq, and his letters that he wrote home were anything but positive. He was getting ready to be shipped home last april to see his brand new baby girl when a road side bomb went off and took out 4 people in his convoy, him included. He was as patriotic as one can get, but was totally against what we were doing there.

Originally posted by djohnsto77
I'm not saying that everything is OK, but it is a large country and large areas are peaceful and the car bombs, while horrible, aren't blowing up on every street corner as it might seem by watching the press coverage.

You do realize the peaceful areas are peaceful because they're desert and no one lives there right.

Originally posted by boogyman

Originally posted by djohnsto77
I'm not saying that everything is OK, but it is a large country and large areas are peaceful and the car bombs, while horrible, aren't blowing up on every street corner as it might seem by watching the press coverage.

You do realize the peaceful areas are peaceful because they're desert and no one lives there right.

That's not true, the Kurdish and Shia areas are mainly peaceful and they compromise 80% of the population.

I think that theres some indication of whats really going on in the way that each side presents their case. First of all I wouldn't trust the world tribune article because that guy is in too high of a position to do anything but put a positive spin on the situation unless he has no concern for his career. Whenever you hear about the improvements being made and how some areas are peaceful, it tends to be a first hand account of one single person. Well there arent car bombs and firefights happening consatantly on every street corner so its not going to be impossible to find people who see a peaceful, progressing Iraq. so its not lying or propaganda necessarily when you hear this, its just the media choosing to present that perspective. However when you step back and look at the overall situation it is most definitely not improving and I find it surprising and disheartening that even military officers are now admitting that the violence is increasing and speculating that it will continue to do so even after the elections. I am extremely sick of hearing the bickering between right and left media, and the accusations form both sides that every other news source is propaganda. Its ridiculously hard (maybe impossible) to find an objective news report on the war in Iraq although the country is clearly a wreck or there would be no basis for that arguement and you only have to look at the statistics to see that.

You have voted Apoc for the Way Above Top Secret award. You have used all of your votes for this month.

Thank you Apoc for finding and sharing a point of view, wonderfully written, from a guy who actually knows. Its about god damn time people who have real experience with the situation in Iraq get the word out.

I am, and always will be, a proud American who thinks my brothers and sisters fighting in Iraq are super heroes.

Quote from the article.
As a recent example, the operation in Fallujah delivered an absolutely devastating blow to the insurgency. Though much smaller in scope, clearing Fallujah of insurgents arguably could equate to the Allies' breakout from the hedgerows in France during World War II. In both cases, our troops overcame a well-prepared and solidly entrenched enemy and began what could be the latter's last stand. In Fallujah, the enemy death toll has exceeded 1,500 and still is climbing.

Ok comparing the insurgency in Fallujah to D Day is like comparing apples to oranges.
With all do respect I hope the US military has some brighter people in Iraq then this guy. Despite what he says I doubt he grasps the concept of insurgrency warfare.

Quote from the article.
but the fact remains that the central geographic stronghold of the insurgents is now under friendly control. That sounds a lot like success to me.
and yet the insurgents run riot in an effort to undermine the elections?

Insurgenrency warfare is less about geographical area and more about people.