SITREP FROM IRAQ Sept 23, 2004
Date: 9/25/04 1:53 AM MST
Sent: Wednesday, September 24, 2004 10:57 PM
Subject: Fw: [ROWF] FW: Marine SITREP from Iraq
From: William.Truax@vcmain.hq.c5.army.mil
A thought from Iraq - "Doom & Gloom about Iraq's
future..I don't see it from where I'm sitting."
[For those of you who haven't gotten my "Thoughts"
before, I'm a Major
in the USMC on the Multi-National Corps staff in
Baghdad. The analysts
and pundits who don't see what I see on a daily
basis, in my opinion,
have very little credibility to talk about the
situation - especially if
they have yet to set foot in Iraq. Everything
Americans believe about
Iraq is simply perception filtered through one's
latent prejudices until
you are face-to-face with reality. If you haven't
seen, or don't
remember, the John Wayne movie, The Green Berets,
you should watch it
this weekend. Pay special attention to the character
of the reporter,
Mr. Beckwith. His experience is directly related to
the situation here.
You'll have a different perspective on Iraq after
the movie is over.]
The US media is abuzz today with the news of an
intelligence report that
is very negative about the prospects for Iraq's
future. CNN's website
says, "[The] National Intelligence Estimate was sent
to the White House
in July with a classified warning predicting the
best case for Iraq was
'tenuous stability' and the worst case was civil
war." That report,
along with the car bombings and kidnappings in
Baghdad in the past
couple days are being portrayed in the media as more
proof of absolute
chaos and the intransigence of the insurgency.
From where I sit, at the Operational Headquarters
in Baghdad, that just
isn't the case. Let's lay out some background, first
about the
"National Intelligence Estimate." The most glaring
issue with its
relevance is the fact that it was delivered to the
White House in July.
That means that the information that was used to
derive the intelligence
was gathered in the Spring - in the immediate
aftermath of the April
battle for Fallujah, and other events. The report
doesn't cover what
has happened in July or August, let alone September.
The naysayers will point to the recent battles in
Najaf and draw
parallels between that and what happened in Fallujah
in April. They
aren't even close. The bad guys did us a HUGE favor
by gathering
together in one place and trying to make a stand. It
allowed us to
focus on them and defea t them. Make no mistake, Al
Sadr's troops were
thoroughly smashed. The estimated enemy killed in
action is huge.
Before the battles, the residents of the city were
afraid to walk the
streets. Al Sadr's enforcers would seize people and
bring them to his
Islamic court where sentence was passed for
religious or other
violations. Long before the battles people were
looking for their lost
loved ones who had been taken to "court" and never
seen again. Now
Najafians can and do walk their streets in safety.
Commerce has
returned and the city is being rebuilt. Iraqi
security forces and US
troops are welcomed and smiled upon. That city was
liberated again. It
was not like Fallujah - the bad guys lost and are in
hiding or dead.
You may not have even heard about the city of
Samarra. Two weeks ago,
that Sunni Triangle city was a "No-go" area for US
troops . But guess
what? The locals got sick of living in fear from the
insurgents and
foreign fighters that were there and let them know
they weren't welcome.
They stopped hosting them in their houses and the
mayor of the town
brokered a deal with the US commander to return
Iraqi government
sovereignty to the city without a fight. The people
saw what was on the
horizon and decided they didn't want their city
looking like Fallujah in
April or Najaf in August.
Boom, boom, just like that two major "hot spots"
cool down in rapid
succession. Does that mean that those towns are
completely pacified?
No. What it does mean is that we are learning how to
do this the right
way. The US commander in Samarra saw an opportunity
and took it -
probably the biggest victory of his military career
and nary a shot was
fired in anger. Things will still happen i n those
cities, and you can
be sure that the bad guys really want to take them
back. Those
achievements, more than anything else in my opinion,
account for the
surge in violence in recent days - especially the
violence directed at
Iraqis by the insurgents. Both in Najaf and Samarra
ordinary people
stepped out and took sides with the Iraqi government
against the
insurgents, and the bad guys are hopping mad. They
are trying to
instill fear once again. The worst thing we could do
now is pull back
and let that scum back into people's homes and
lives.
So, you may hear analysts and prognosticators on
CNN, ABC and the like
in the next few days talking about how bleak the
situation is here in
Iraq, but from where I sit, it's looking
significantly better now than
when I got here. The momentum is moving in our
favor, and all Americans
need to know that, so please, please, pass this on
to those who care and
will pass it on to others. It is very demoralizing
for us here in
uniform to read & hear such negativity in our press.
It is fodder for
our enemies to use against us and against the vast
majority of Iraqis
who want their new government to succeed. It causes
the American public
to start thinking about the acceptability of
"cutting our losses" and
pulling out, which would be devastating for Iraq for
generations to
come, and Muslim militants would claim a huge
victory, causing us to
have to continue to fight them elsewhere (remember,
in war "Away" games
are always preferable to "Home" games). Reports like
that also cause
Iraqis begin to fear that we will pull out before we
finish the job, and
thus less willing to openly support their interim
government and
US/Coalition activities. We are realizing signif
icant progress here -
not propaganda progress, but real strides are being
made. It's terrible
to see our national morale, and support for what
we're doing here,
jeopardized by sensationalized stories hyped by
media giants whose #1
priority is advertising income followed closely by
their political
agenda; getting the story straight falls much
further down on their
priority scale, as Dan Rather and CBS News have so
aptly demonstrated in
the last week.
Thanks for listening. Feedback is always welcome,
though I can't
promise an immediate response..
William.Truax@vcmain.hq.c5.army.mil.
=====
Listen to J.R. on Talk Show America, a political conservative talk show that webcasts Mon-Fri 4-6 PM EST live on the IBC Radio Network www.ibcrn.com or 24/7 @ www.talkshowamerica.com (Recorded)
Date: 9/25/04 1:53 AM MST
Sent: Wednesday, September 24, 2004 10:57 PM
Subject: Fw: [ROWF] FW: Marine SITREP from Iraq
From: William.Truax@vcmain.hq.c5.army.mil
A thought from Iraq - "Doom & Gloom about Iraq's
future..I don't see it from where I'm sitting."
[For those of you who haven't gotten my "Thoughts"
before, I'm a Major
in the USMC on the Multi-National Corps staff in
Baghdad. The analysts
and pundits who don't see what I see on a daily
basis, in my opinion,
have very little credibility to talk about the
situation - especially if
they have yet to set foot in Iraq. Everything
Americans believe about
Iraq is simply perception filtered through one's
latent prejudices until
you are face-to-face with reality. If you haven't
seen, or don't
remember, the John Wayne movie, The Green Berets,
you should watch it
this weekend. Pay special attention to the character
of the reporter,
Mr. Beckwith. His experience is directly related to
the situation here.
You'll have a different perspective on Iraq after
the movie is over.]
The US media is abuzz today with the news of an
intelligence report that
is very negative about the prospects for Iraq's
future. CNN's website
says, "[The] National Intelligence Estimate was sent
to the White House
in July with a classified warning predicting the
best case for Iraq was
'tenuous stability' and the worst case was civil
war." That report,
along with the car bombings and kidnappings in
Baghdad in the past
couple days are being portrayed in the media as more
proof of absolute
chaos and the intransigence of the insurgency.
From where I sit, at the Operational Headquarters
in Baghdad, that just
isn't the case. Let's lay out some background, first
about the
"National Intelligence Estimate." The most glaring
issue with its
relevance is the fact that it was delivered to the
White House in July.
That means that the information that was used to
derive the intelligence
was gathered in the Spring - in the immediate
aftermath of the April
battle for Fallujah, and other events. The report
doesn't cover what
has happened in July or August, let alone September.
The naysayers will point to the recent battles in
Najaf and draw
parallels between that and what happened in Fallujah
in April. They
aren't even close. The bad guys did us a HUGE favor
by gathering
together in one place and trying to make a stand. It
allowed us to
focus on them and defea t them. Make no mistake, Al
Sadr's troops were
thoroughly smashed. The estimated enemy killed in
action is huge.
Before the battles, the residents of the city were
afraid to walk the
streets. Al Sadr's enforcers would seize people and
bring them to his
Islamic court where sentence was passed for
religious or other
violations. Long before the battles people were
looking for their lost
loved ones who had been taken to "court" and never
seen again. Now
Najafians can and do walk their streets in safety.
Commerce has
returned and the city is being rebuilt. Iraqi
security forces and US
troops are welcomed and smiled upon. That city was
liberated again. It
was not like Fallujah - the bad guys lost and are in
hiding or dead.
You may not have even heard about the city of
Samarra. Two weeks ago,
that Sunni Triangle city was a "No-go" area for US
troops . But guess
what? The locals got sick of living in fear from the
insurgents and
foreign fighters that were there and let them know
they weren't welcome.
They stopped hosting them in their houses and the
mayor of the town
brokered a deal with the US commander to return
Iraqi government
sovereignty to the city without a fight. The people
saw what was on the
horizon and decided they didn't want their city
looking like Fallujah in
April or Najaf in August.
Boom, boom, just like that two major "hot spots"
cool down in rapid
succession. Does that mean that those towns are
completely pacified?
No. What it does mean is that we are learning how to
do this the right
way. The US commander in Samarra saw an opportunity
and took it -
probably the biggest victory of his military career
and nary a shot was
fired in anger. Things will still happen i n those
cities, and you can
be sure that the bad guys really want to take them
back. Those
achievements, more than anything else in my opinion,
account for the
surge in violence in recent days - especially the
violence directed at
Iraqis by the insurgents. Both in Najaf and Samarra
ordinary people
stepped out and took sides with the Iraqi government
against the
insurgents, and the bad guys are hopping mad. They
are trying to
instill fear once again. The worst thing we could do
now is pull back
and let that scum back into people's homes and
lives.
So, you may hear analysts and prognosticators on
CNN, ABC and the like
in the next few days talking about how bleak the
situation is here in
Iraq, but from where I sit, it's looking
significantly better now than
when I got here. The momentum is moving in our
favor, and all Americans
need to know that, so please, please, pass this on
to those who care and
will pass it on to others. It is very demoralizing
for us here in
uniform to read & hear such negativity in our press.
It is fodder for
our enemies to use against us and against the vast
majority of Iraqis
who want their new government to succeed. It causes
the American public
to start thinking about the acceptability of
"cutting our losses" and
pulling out, which would be devastating for Iraq for
generations to
come, and Muslim militants would claim a huge
victory, causing us to
have to continue to fight them elsewhere (remember,
in war "Away" games
are always preferable to "Home" games). Reports like
that also cause
Iraqis begin to fear that we will pull out before we
finish the job, and
thus less willing to openly support their interim
government and
US/Coalition activities. We are realizing signif
icant progress here -
not propaganda progress, but real strides are being
made. It's terrible
to see our national morale, and support for what
we're doing here,
jeopardized by sensationalized stories hyped by
media giants whose #1
priority is advertising income followed closely by
their political
agenda; getting the story straight falls much
further down on their
priority scale, as Dan Rather and CBS News have so
aptly demonstrated in
the last week.
Thanks for listening. Feedback is always welcome,
though I can't
promise an immediate response..
William.Truax@vcmain.hq.c5.army.mil.
=====
Listen to J.R. on Talk Show America, a political conservative talk show that webcasts Mon-Fri 4-6 PM EST live on the IBC Radio Network www.ibcrn.com or 24/7 @ www.talkshowamerica.com (Recorded)
1 comment:
pathetic...i'm glad mr. truax can look at the bright side under such difficult
conditions. Even better, I'm glad he isn't aware that the premises of his presence in another man's country is completely invalid...that might really rain on his parade. I'm also glad he's never really reflected on the history
of occupations like this one...He might then take a dimmer view of his position
and of the politicians that have put him there. Hey, William , good luck, I hope you and your comrades come out of there in one piece, but i'm sorry, all the cheerleading in the world will never make up for the fact that our invasion of Iraq is a bogus war.
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