Soldier's perspective of civil unrest in Iraq
The Washington Post has published an article after interviewing 100 veterans of the war in Iraq, and there are a few money quotes:
What they experienced was more complex than the war they saw on television and in print. It was dangerous and confused, yes, but most of the vets also recalled enemies routed, buildings built and children befriended, against long odds in a poor and demoralized country. "We feel like we're doing something, and then we look at the news and you feel like you're getting bashed." "It seems to me the media had a predetermined script." The vibe of the coverage is just "so, so, so negative."
An email I got today from a friend deployed to Baghdad, Iraq right now echoed this sentiment:
There is not a whole lot going on here in Iraq; some people would be disappointed to hear me say that American nightly news is full of sh*t with all its doom and gloom prophecies. Even though some battalions feel they're doing a lot, the truth is they're only running 3/4 the missions we were 2 years ago. Iraqi police dot every major intersection and they run as many patrols as Americans do. So, the situation has de-escalated substantially from the JUN 04 era.
I always find emails from him interesting, because it offers another piece of the puzzle to what is going on there. I have read many soldiers' blogs stating the same: that they aren't seeing the civil unrest that they are hearing about on the news.
However, the tens of dead bodies that are turning up in Baghdad aren't a figment of the collective media's imagination.
Just as the main-stream media's reports have their limitations (reporters aren't getting that close to the action), the fact that he and other soldiers aren't seeing a lot of the carnage that is going on right now, doesn't mean it isn't happening, it just means it's not as wide spread as media coverage would lead us to believe. It also means that the Iraqi Army and police are dealing with the unrest, and not American soldiers, which is, in my humble opinion, a step in the right direction.
What they experienced was more complex than the war they saw on television and in print. It was dangerous and confused, yes, but most of the vets also recalled enemies routed, buildings built and children befriended, against long odds in a poor and demoralized country. "We feel like we're doing something, and then we look at the news and you feel like you're getting bashed." "It seems to me the media had a predetermined script." The vibe of the coverage is just "so, so, so negative."
An email I got today from a friend deployed to Baghdad, Iraq right now echoed this sentiment:
There is not a whole lot going on here in Iraq; some people would be disappointed to hear me say that American nightly news is full of sh*t with all its doom and gloom prophecies. Even though some battalions feel they're doing a lot, the truth is they're only running 3/4 the missions we were 2 years ago. Iraqi police dot every major intersection and they run as many patrols as Americans do. So, the situation has de-escalated substantially from the JUN 04 era.
I always find emails from him interesting, because it offers another piece of the puzzle to what is going on there. I have read many soldiers' blogs stating the same: that they aren't seeing the civil unrest that they are hearing about on the news.
However, the tens of dead bodies that are turning up in Baghdad aren't a figment of the collective media's imagination.
Just as the main-stream media's reports have their limitations (reporters aren't getting that close to the action), the fact that he and other soldiers aren't seeing a lot of the carnage that is going on right now, doesn't mean it isn't happening, it just means it's not as wide spread as media coverage would lead us to believe. It also means that the Iraqi Army and police are dealing with the unrest, and not American soldiers, which is, in my humble opinion, a step in the right direction.
posted by CaliValleyGirl at 4:41 PM
3 Comments:
You are exactly right.
How many times do the troops have to say it before anyone believes it, there are good things going on in Iraq. I've heard it so many times in blogs and from friends who are deployed, but it's refreshing to see it in the news, finally. Do I think it will make a difference?? Sadly, no. But it's still good to see.
Thanks for sharing this...I always kind of wonder what the soldiers that are actually there think about all of this.
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