Iraq GI: Troops Are 'Terrified' of a Kerry Presidency

Iraq GI: Troops Are 'Terrified' of a Kerry Presidency

U.S. troops on the ground in Iraq are "terrified" at
the prospect that Americans back home might elect John
Kerry president, a Marine Iraq veteran who is on his
way back to the frontlines said Monday.

Asked how Kerry's election would effect troop morale
in the combat zone, Lance Corporal Lawrence Romack
told KWEL Midland, Texas radio host Craig Anderson,
"It would destroy it." "We're pretty terrified of a
John Kerry presidency," added Romack, who served with
the 1st Marine Tank Battalion in Iraq.

The Iraq war vet said he fears that most of the news
coverage is being skewed to make the mission look like
a failure in order to give the Kerry campaign a boost.

"What they're trying to do is get Kerry into the White
House, because they know he doesn't want us to stay
[in Iraq]," he told Anderson.

Asked if Americans back home were getting an accurate
picture of what's happening in the war, the Marine
corporal said, "No, they're not. It's not even close.
All the press wants to report is casualty counts. They
don't want to report the progress we're making over
there."

Romack noted that in southern part of the country,
Iraqis welcomed U.S. troops when they set up an
immunization programs for children, opened schools and
began distributing food.

"Almost immediately people were lining up to get their
kids shots," he told Anderson.

Contrary to reports that the general population was
too afraid to help ferret out insurgents, Romack said,
"We had Iraqis pointing out former Baath Party members
for us to arrest."

When the KWEL host opened up the phone lines, a member
of the 82nd Airborne who had returned from Iraq in
March was first on the line.

He agreed with Cpl. Romack that media reports coming
out of Iraq were often inaccurate - and sometimes even
dangerous.

"The news media - sometimes I felt like I had as much
to fear from them as I did the Iraqis," he complained.