Well hello again. It has been a month since my last post, sorry, but time flies when you are having fun. Not to much to report from the sand box. It is hot, 120+ is our daily high, no clouds and a hot wind. It amazes me that 110 can feel comfortable, and at times it does. Things continue to go well for the team and we are beginning to count down the days until we rotate back to the States. We are not exactly sure of our return date yet, or when the Colorado crew will actually get back to CO, but it will be coming soon.
I do want to pass along some incites from my side of the world. I know watching the news it seems like things are not getting better in Iraq. But believe me they are. In the Al Anbar Provence things have changed dramatically. Once considered the deadliest place in Iraq, Anbar has quieted down significantly. The surge here has worked. Public works projects in the cities are in full swing and the infrastructure of the cities is being rebuilt. If you are only able to watch the news it does not seem so, but it is happening.
One of the guys on the team made a great point to me the other day. The way our media reports the war they only talk about the bad things that are happening. His example was a great one. He said: When do you hear about teachers in the media? Only when one does something bad, sleeps with a student or some other form of misconduct. You never hear about the teachers who change kids lives for the positive and do great things for their students. The same is true here in Iraq. What do you hear about in the media? The violence in Baghdad, misconduct by service members or other less than flattering things about the young men and women fighting in this war. You never hear about the medical treatment provided by service members helping the sick, the rebuilding of the schools, the opening of new hospitals, the rebuilding of roads, the fixing of the basic services infrastructure neglected by Saddam while he built palaces for himself and his family with the money meant for the people of Iraq.
Politicians are pandering to the popular opinion of the people who are not willing to listen to the good things that are happening in this county. Is the country perfect? No, and we have a ways to go to get Iraq and the Iraqi people back on their feet. But I have had the chance to talk to Iraqis who are eternally grateful that we entered Iraq, deposed Saddam and are helping to rebuild the country. Many of the Iraqi's that I have spoken with are embarrassed by the conduct of their countrymen who are causing the destruction of the country. They are even more appalled by the outsiders from Jordan, Syria, Saudi Arabia, Iran and other countries that are coming to Iraq and killing Iraqis, American and Coalition Forces.
This is just my opinion. You may not agree and still want the immediate withdrawal of American and Coalition Forces from this country. But what if we had not helped rebuild Germany and Japan after World War 2 and South Korea after the Korean War? Think about it. It is our responsibility to finish the job we started in Iraq. As long as public opinion and the spineless politicians in Washington bash what we are trying to do they provide the strength for the insurgency and people destroying what we are helping rebuild to continue their fight. Remember, the United States struggled to become a unified nation after we gained our independence from England. Most of the world did not recognize the legitimacy of the US government until after the War of 1812 and we still had to fight a civil war before the US was truly one nation.
Just the thoughts of a service member. Thank you to everyone for your support of me and the Marines that I serve with. I know the American people support the troops and what we are doing. If we all supported the government the same way we would be unbeatable.
