SwiftVets.com

[DenisC]

My fellow Vietnam Veterans. The following post by one of my favorite Blogs (CaptainsQuarters..Capt. Ed) brings back a lot of memories. The real war and what the Media will not tell the American people. TRUST ME, YOU SHOULD READ THIS. Denis

http://www.captainsquartersblog.com/mt/

At The Front: No Doom And Gloom Here

Longtime CQ reader Bob Stakel forwards me a message from his neice's husband, a Major in the Marine Corps who cannot understand why the American media keeps painting such a gloomy picture of their work. I've copied it, unedited, for CQ readers:

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 defeat 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 in 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 significant 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.

Posted by Captain Ed at 01:36 PM | Comments (18) | TrackBack (1)


_________________
DenisC
173rd Airborne, RVN '65-67'

[no_1_momlandj]

I'll be sending this to everyone I know.

[dmackto]

I sent that to Hannity with a "please do a story" note.
_________________
Deborah
The FROZEN CHICKEN Journal

This is no time for ease and comfort. It is the time to dare and endure.
- Winston Churchill

[BuffaloJack]

That story was reminiscent of when we were in Viet Nam.
Things would have been great if the liberal press and Kerry hadn't screwed it up. Their activities only serve to boost the moral or the bad guys.
Same thing here. When will the press become America lovers again??

[CTW]

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 defeat 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.

This proud American says "Thank You to all our troops. We support you 100%." I hope we hear more stories from Iraq so we have a real view of what is happening there. Let's pass this and any others on to all we know. To the BIG RED ONE/Samara "Give em hell guys! We love you!" CTW

Never Ever Kerry

[grammaj]

Deborah Mack,

THANK YOU for sending this on to Sean. I hope he has time on the weekend to do something great with it.

God Bless all who are or have served in the military.

[Navy_Navy_Navy]

[DenisC]

To expand on my memories on what really caused us to “Quit VIETNAM.” I say QUIT, because that was the truth. There were many reasons, but I will give those who do not know, the order in which they happened.

1. Robert McNamara, the Secretary of Defense under Pres. Johnson (Dem) put incredible and stupid restrictions on those fighting the war. (Dem Pres. JFK sent the first troops there)

2. The Generals went along with the restrictions without resigning. (It would only have taken a few resignations to get the attention of the American people. Once resigned, they could have spoken out against McNamara.)

3. The casualties began to rise because of the stupid restrictions. We NEVER LOST ONE BATTLE, but abandoned the ground we won, over and over and over.

4. The DRAFT put many troops who did not want to serve (not all) into the war. These reluctant warriors caused a lot of problems, in Vietnam and after they returned. (John Kerry joined the Naval Reserves only because he lost his Deferment)

5. Then the Mainstream Media, who did not want to be there, started reporting all sorts of BS about the war. C-BS’s Walter Cronkite was one of the worst. These cowards clearly did not understand the big picture.

5. Kerry and his friend Jane Fonda started VVAW.

6. Kerry and Fonda put together a pack of lairs, who made up all kinds of BS about a Vietnam I did not know about, even after 27 months in-country. It turned out nearly all of these people never served in Vietnam.

7. And worst of all, we had some very Treasonous Congressmen and Senators who pretended the Republicans started the war. NIXON'S WAR is all we heard, all day, every day.

You can add a few things I left out, but the above is basically what happened. We lost 58,178 Brave Souls for the hope of Freedom in a far away land. The rest is History, except for one thing. 250+ Swiftees had the guts to set the record straight and I am very proud to have served near them.
_________________
DenisC
173rd Airborne, RVN '65-67'

[Richard Christiansen]

Thanks for the optimistic message DenisC. Perhaps the most important battle being waged is for the hearts and minds of Americans to see the truth, the virtue of fighting for freedom, to know that reality is much better than what is presented by the doom and gloom of the mainstream media. Maybe, just maybe, the Swift Boat Veterans have served as a flashpoint for more and more people demanding more truth and balance in reporting. More and more people will get tired of hearing the constant lies, such as "Iraq is another quagmire like Vietnam," "this is the worst economy since the Great Depression," "Vietnam vets committed atrocities and are all miserable failures since then," "Republicans want to poison the water," "Republicans are planning to take your Social Security benefits," "they want to starve your children," "they are plotting to keep minorities from voting," on and on. The list is endless. I don't see how they can be so pessimistic or possess such a guilt complex about living in the most wonderful country on earth. Thank you Swiftees for trying to set the record straight about Vietnam, and in so doing, some people are beginning to see the light about what the main stream media has been doing for a long long time.
_________________
Big Red One & 25th, Lai Khe, Etc - 69-70

[WebTalk]

This is the NEWS that we must get out.
I suggest we send it to all our e-mail lists.
I hope we can get a steady stream of such reports.

"Support the Troops" is the most popular slogan of the day.
You cannot support the troops and push for a "pull out timetable".

We know the President supports the troops and the Iraqi people.
We'll be there as long as it takes, and that could be a long time.

I would like to hear what Kerry's definition of supporting the troops is.
Senator Kerry, do you support the troops? How so?

I would like to thank the troops for their service and sacrifice.
I do it by contributing to this effort, by speaking out
and advancing these reports, and by other fundraising efforts.

God Bless America and those who serve her.
_________________
America voted for solid LEADERSHIP and gave "W" a mandate to carry on.
God Blessed America! Again!

[Hammer2]

Bumper sticker:

Support the Troops - Support the Mission!
_________________
"The price of freedom is eternal vigilence" - Thomas Jefferson
"An armed society is a polite society" - Thomas Jefferson
"The beauty of the Second Amendment is that it won't be needed until someone tries to take it away." -- Thomas Jefferson

[Beatrice1000]

For the last year, it has been difficult to listen to the news here about what our troops are up to in Iraq/Afghanistan -- the doom and gloom is coming from the libs and the media and it is gut-wrenching to watch them twist events to fit their anti-war agenda. From time to time I have copied articles and pics about the advances we are making and the good things we are doing from the US Command website and send out to various media and requested/demanded: REPORT THIS! but to no avail.

I am hoping that after we have accomplished the current mission to wipe Kerry off the world stage, that perhaps we can focus on shaking up the media coverage of this war to reflect general coverage of our activities rather than only the violence and chaos, and that we can expose the fraud of the libs that say they "support the troops" but "don't support the war" -- which, in essense, is saying we do not support America in this endeavor --

You can't separate our soldiers from our country. If you do not support the war, you do not support the troops --So, SAY SO and admit it and explain to us WHO YOU ARE and what you want.....same people/same plans: pull out of VietNam, pull out of Iraq, stop fighting for freedom, stop defending the U.S., stop all offensive actions and just talk about something else.... (What "else" would that be, hmm-mmm?? Maybe something altruistic? Maybe something pacifistic? Maybe something about making int'l friends happy??? Let's not bother with the big picture, huh? Let's certainly not think about who America really is -- but what you want her to be. Come now, tell us exactly what that is.....)

The new badgering question I'm hearing lately (well, it's an old question revisited) from the dems is "what's the plan for bringing the troops home? What's the EXIT strategy?" And they get all excited with this "gotcha" question - they lean forward aggressively spitting and grinning because there is, of course, no answer to that question. Unless one wants to spell out in detail every move we intend to make so that the enemy can be fully prepared...... AAARRRGGG

One can only answer, over and over and over -- "when the job is done." "When Iraq is stable and it is safe to leave." But they cannot understand that, because it isn't "a plan." These people are out of their minds. From the beginning of the war I have heard this question, "when will we get out?" And I still cannot just let it go by without anguish and anger because it reflects such a juvenile understanding of the current affairs of the world, and it is so dangerous to our future...

I get most of my news about our troops from the US Central Command website. I have tried time and again to get various media to go there for pics and articles in order to cover daily events. It's not the end-all for coverage, but it is a beginning -- and until reporters discover that reporting involves being on the scene rather than reading the NYT and the AP and searching the internet for information, we will not get on-the-scene reporting, except from our military. SO: Here's hoping you will pass around the US military links for daily information and help get this news OUT THERE to the general public, somehow:

United States Central Command Home Page: http://www.centcom.mil/

Defend America - News Articles: http://www.defendamerica.mil/

And here's one little interesting article from 7-12-04 “Going Home to War” - Iraqi Soldiers: Female trainees graduate 10-wk basic training in Jordan:
http://www.defendamerica.mil/articles/jul2004/a071204c.html

[sixdogteam]

[Guest]

nice post!!

[scotty61]