Complaint By Soldiers in Iraq

BasketCase

BasketCase

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http://www.cnn.com/2005/WORLD/meast/12/13/btsc.cooper/index.html

BAQUBA, Iraq (CNN) -- We're in Baquba today, about 35 miles north of Baghdad. We hitched a ride this morning on a Blackhawk helicopter after finishing the show, and spent much of the day on patrol with the U.S. military.

I'm usually not all that impressed by machines, but Blackhawks are amazing. The heavy rotors slice the air. The sound is at once crushing and comforting. You take off, fly low, at times skimming treetops.

It's been a long day, and will likely be a long night.

I just finished writing an account of the patrol that will be on our show in a couple of hours. It's now nearly 10 p.m. here, and I still have a couple other pieces to write. We go live at 6 a.m. Iraq time, which is 10 p.m. on the East Coast. So I'm not sure I will be able to sleep tonight.

I can't complain, however. The soldiers I spent the day with work around the clock seven days a week. They can't keep regular shifts because they don't want insurgents to be able to track their routines. (Cooper: 'I had my first gun pointed at me today')

The unit I spent the day with is one month shy of going home. The commander, Capt. Patrick Moffett, was very optimistic about progress in Iraq, and by some accounts Baquba is a real success story. Attacks have dropped 30-40 percent since last year, and the Iraqi police in the city actually are able to conduct some operations on their own.

I'm planning on going out on patrol with Iraqi forces tomorrow, which should be interesting. They don't have armored vehicles, so it's a bit dicey. But I think it's an important story. It's worth seeing them operate for myself.

I'm always incredibly impressed by the U.S. service members I meet here. They are not all as optimistic and supportive of the mission as the captain I spent time with today, but they are all dedicated to their units, devoted to their fellow troops. I think a lot of us in the states forget how difficult it is for the families of these soldiers and marines, airmen and sailors.

They are away for so long. Multiple tours in Iraq are not uncommon.

Every soldier I talked to today said the media hasn't done a good job of telling the full story from Iraq. It's a complaint I've heard before, and certainly understand. I do think television tends to focus on the bombs and the bullets, the most dramatic headlines. So much of what happens here never makes the nightly news.

When today's patrol ended, one of the soldiers said to me, "Sorry it wasn't more exciting for you." I told him I wasn't looking for excitement, and in fact, I was glad the day unfolded as it did.

It reminded me that life in Iraq is never what you expect it to be. The situation here is far more complex and the fight far more nuanced than it is often portrayed.
Click to expand...
 
It's nice to hear this, although it is difficult even for me to trust this story as I have been so inundated with "Iraq's a failure" and "Our troops are dying by the hundreds" etc and that's ALL I've been hearing.

I bet the calls of "neo con propaganda" will begin in 3, 2, 1...
 
I had throught that the pentagon had realeased figures showing attacks have noe reached over 100 attacks per day up from 350 per week last year and 150 per week during the first year of occupation.

The US improvement (not quite success yet) in Baquba is encouraging.
At the very least US have developed a good counter-insurgancy stratergy that is working

--

nice to have good news for a change
 
Its also in the Sunni triangle as well.

(As I googled for the map there was quite a few headlines about the ongowing war in Baquba, which made me think the news article was a little bias. only a little)

iraq_attack_map.jpg
 
Good to hear - they seem to have killed enough people by now.








and no, the second part of the sentence was not meant seriously.
 
So, in the town of Baquba the clouds now have a silver lining as things aren't necessarily spiraling downwards but may be stabilising.

That must be a relief.

What's the situation in all these other towns in the Sunni triangle?

It's just one town, and having followed this for a while there's this sneaky, suspiscious voice at the bacl of my head asking:
"So, doesn't the fact that this hot-spot has now cooled off just mean that the insurgents have moved on to somewhere else, where the pickings are better?"

That's happened before.
 
I've been to Baquba; it's a dirty run down town but at least the farms make things green compared to the rest of central Iraq. I much prefered the mountains of Kurdistan though.
 
I don't think CNN will start a show with the headline "New bridge build in Basra" or "Elementary school opens in Tikrit". And that's ok. In fact, it's normal. The media's job in a war is to report events, not to produce governmental propaganda while calling it information. Everyone is glad to see less attacks on US troops and progress being made, but this is not necessarily the job of big media outlets to ditch out this type of stories, it's the Pentagon's.
 
The media's job in a war is to report events, not to produce governmental propaganda while calling it information.
Click to expand...

How is it that "bomb kills X" is an event, while "new school built" isn't? And how, praytell, does reporting "new school built" qualify as propaganda?
 
In a free society with a free press, I dont see how its possible to avoid negative coverage during a war. After all, war is about killing, death, explosions, people dying, etc. The only way it could have been avoided in this case would have been if the Coalition had withdrawn immediately after capturing Saddam, like the U.S. did in the invasion of Panama to capture the rogue CIA agent, Noriega.
 
Padma said:
Nothing new about the complaint. Soldiers serving in Iraq have been saying the same thing for quite a while now.
Click to expand...

And I've heard it from everyone I know who's been there.
 
Verbose said:
What's the situation in all these other towns in the Sunni triangle?

It's just one town, and having followed this for a while there's this sneaky, suspiscious voice at the bacl of my head asking:
"So, doesn't the fact that this hot-spot has now cooled off just mean that the insurgents have moved on to somewhere else, where the pickings are better?"

That's happened before.
Click to expand...
The situation everywhere else in Iraq could be similar, for all we know. The reason I posted this is to demonstrate that, basically, we don't. The reporter himself said it: the meda tend to zero in on the bombs and the bullets.

It's just one town
Click to expand...
It's just one town that made the headlines. On the day CNN posted this article, how many towns had nothing happen? We don't know.
 
BasketCase said:
The situation everywhere else in Iraq could be similar, for all we know. The reason I posted this is to demonstrate that, basically, we don't. The reporter himself said it: the meda tend to zero in on the bombs and the bullets.
Click to expand...

Uh didnt I Just tell you that attacks have more then doubled to over 700 attacks a week.

Attacks on U.S. convoys by insurgents using roadside bombs have doubled over the past year
Army Brig. Gen. Yves Fontaine said Friday 2005
 
Boohooo!Americans dont see their families!!!

Well the Iraqis lose thier familes for good.
 
Cleric said:
Boohooo!Americans dont see their families!!!

Well the Iraqis lose thier familes for good.
Click to expand...

Oh, but they don't matter, the soldiers are Americans, so they do.

:rolleyes:
 
The following does not reduce any of my respect for our brave Allied troops:

But soldiers know the deal when the take that oath to become a governmental weapon.

And the fact that our views that war is a negative happening is meant to be transformed
by one disgruntled soldier's account...(rewritten by a journalist and editorialised of course!)


It seems a hollow and propaganda-tuned article.

A soldier is not paid our tax cash to moan, but to do his job.
In this case, killing terrorists - And the daily news reality does
not bear out his rosy assessment of the Iraq situation...

An Arabian Narnialand is a far off thing, and all the
journalistic lies in the world won't change that...

...
 
North King said:
Oh, but they don't matter, the soldiers are Americans, so they do.

:rolleyes:
Click to expand...

So how is an Iraqi life of less worth than an American's?

Answer carefully.

.
 
I think its a good propaganda for the cause of rebuilding Iraq.I know what is true that the Pentagon and the Cia's is bribing journalists and other News Corporations.If it was really a soldier that written it,doesnt meant he sees all of Iraq.Some place is good and some place is horrible.Some soldiers is pessimistic and some are optimistic. etc. etc. etc.
 
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