IRAQ - The positive outlook

I have heard and seen alot when I was over there, some things more damaging mentally than I care to think about, for ex what a human body looks like when it is hit by a mortar. I sometimes get tired of the news reporting the negativity of the war and never showing the positive side of things.

Now before you bash me on this, yes I know troops are getting killed, civilians, contractors and so forth. But there are alot of very positive things going on there. When I arrived there to the location I was at in Anbar Province (specific location will not be ID), drinking water was at a 3% clean, sanitation - what is that? unemployment in the area - ungodly high US/Iraq relations - low

But after I seen renovations, Iraqi people getting jobs and I mean these guys worked their butts off, just loved the fact they were working and bringing in income and some of those people prior to the war, they were making nothing to live on. They were making more in 2 days than in a month and believe me they werent get paid that much, in fact it was like roughly 2.10/hr. Water % went from 3% to 98% in just 3 months, the people never knew what clean water was, they really didnt like the taste, cause they had been so use to dirty, unsanitary heavily loaded bacteria infested water and it was runnign water also. There was a water power plant near us, hadnt been operational since 1993, brought in some generators off their economy did some banging and cleaning and bam up and running and it hardly cost anything to do it.

Overall, the people I met, were highly grateful for overthrowing Saddam. Some of those people, it was just bad I mean I could tell stories all day long and not even put a dent into the life they lived before.

Yes there is a handful compared to the population that dont want this country to succeed, thats cause they dont know better, some have grief against the US cause their cousin was killed by US troops or they were picked up for being in the wrong place and wrong time, there are alot of factions on why they fight and I bet you if you rounded up all of them and asked them why they are doing this, I will guarantee you this, this is fact too...25-45% of them will tell you that they were paid 100-300 USD to perfom attacks on MNF and if they kept doing so they would get paid more each time, they really dont want to do it, but they have no job, no money so do what they must to survive. Not saying to have any sympathy for them, they know better, but the norm is heres 100 USD a mortar tube be here at this location at this this time and you will meet ali akbar he will tell you where and when and give you 3 mortar rounds, when you do this come back to this location and you will be picked up and given the other half of the money...and they go and do that, half of those who attack dont even know what they are attacking for sure they drop the round in the tube 1,2,3 or however many times they have to then run, if they get caught, they only tell you what they know, described above, thats it. The rest of them are fighting a cause, because they dont want change.

But they dont care who they kill, what they destroy, cause in all retrospect they are destroying their own people. I have seen things that these people build, it gets blown to crap, they come in, clean it up, rebuild it.

But what does need to be shown is the good things that happen there, the smiling faces, the aid that is given, the relationships that are made. I am telling you, what the news shows is that these people dont want us there, BS, they are very happy we are there and they dont want us to leave until things are good enough for them to do it themselves and all things are functioning. They are very interested in the way American life is and they want that. And did you know they were never allowed satellite TV unless it was passed thru the govt, they had no idea what was on the outside of Iraq, Saddam and his sons ran the TV programs, all they knew was that the rest of the world hated them and wanted to destroy them. Now there are satellite atennaes for those who can afford it all over. The punishment for having an unauthorized satellite TV, was seizure of all property and put out on the street, with the father 9 out of 10 times arrested and put in prison for 1-5 yrs.

Like I said, I could tell stories all day and I can tell you there are alot of them that do report attacks and incidents, as long as they are not seen informing. I remember the facility I was at, I used to talk to this kid, 10 yrs old, he would come and tell me about where mortars where placed, who was driving by scoping, who was on rooftops eyeing MNF activities, I would exchange for him sometimes money, gave a CD player (had to teach him to use it, never heard of one before) some food little things after awhile he didnt want anything, all he wanted was for people to stop dying and to catch those who were against MNF, the last time I spoke to him before I left, he cried begging me to not leave, cause I had to go my time was up, he thought cause I was leaving that everyone else was going to leave too and they would be no longer safe. I felt bad for him. But he took a huge chance coming to us, cause the front gate is not some hidden place. But everytime he gave us info, I reported it and he was 100% correct all the time. The thing is alot of these people do good things and try to save peoples lives and some of them are caught, most likely executed cause we never see or hear from them again.

I just had to get that out. I jsut see nothing but bad news horror stories, hell I lived some of those horror stories, it would just be nice to hear the good things and I was hoping to share some of that cause there is alot of good things that do happen over there.

mscbkc070904 I think that the postives in Iraq arent reported because they wont make the 6 oclock news. Thank you for pointing out some of the postives sadly thou Bushes quick fixs will undo any progress that is made in the long term.

I dont think it is so much the Bush quick fixes that will undo. You do have to remember there is UN guidelines to how long a country that invades has before soemthign must be done where th ecountry can thrive on its own and power is turned over. Much like the Kosovo situation and Bosnia. However, the UN has kept its mouth very quiet on this, guess they want to make sure the fingers point at the US if it fails so their hands are clean about this. But there is a mandate on how long a country has, I believe its 2 yrs is the maxium, but once the govt is established, if it fails the time is reset. Not saying thats the plan on the US part, but Iraq has to get back on its feet at some point in time and start somewhere and the time is now, whether its good or not. Yes I do believe we should wait til at least another 6 mo min. But things have to start, we cant hold their hands forever. Basically the insurgency is like a crying baby that doesnt want to do what its told...yes lives are being taken because of that, but so are their lives as well, the insurgency days are number, not saying they will completely end, they never will, but the attacks will slow tremendously.

Thanks for giving us some real firsthand info on the Iraq situation.

Many people here seem to either want the U.S., Britain et al to fail or just believe the only thing going on in Iraq is the bad news shown on T.V.

Hey no problem djohnsto, there are alot of good things going on there, its just sad that all they report is bad news. I mean look at the Tsunami, have you really heard anything good about the place, like things improving, if you do its all about 3 seconds mentioned, but they show nothign but devastation. I mean we have been there what now 2 weeks, what major improvement have been made by those supporting?

The same thing should be reported about Iraq. It would be nice to see a 10 min picture slideshow shown on the news for about a week each month, letting the American people and other nations know that there is something being accomplished instead of death and destruction. Kind of like before and after, interviews will real Iraqi people and their views of things, before and after.

Originally posted by mscbkc070904
I dont think it is so much the Bush quick fixes that will undo. You do have to remember there is UN guidelines to how long a country that invades has before soemthign must be done where th ecountry can thrive on its own and power is turned over.

What makes you think the US will follow UN guidelines and international law now when they already shattered and degraded it by invading Iraq?
The message they are spreading is that international law is supreme, unless you have the power to go above it.

Nothing positive can come from killing people. No matter how "noble" the intentions may be.

I agree with Frith, nothing positive comes from killing people, now occurs our soldiers are sent to Iraq with the idea that they are helping the people in that country and occur anything they do in Iraq I believe comes from the hart, and is the way most Americans are, they are companioned, occur you always find the war happy soldiers but they are soldiers anyway.

Most soldiers have families, wives, children and they feel for the people in Iraq.

The realities of the war in that country cannot be denied, for one part soldiers want to help on other hand they have to follow orders and when it comes to fighting the "enemy"

But when the realities of Iraq are that people mostly civilians are caught in the struggle of the situation for control in that country it out weight the good intentions of most of the soldiers in Iraq. After all when a father loses a son on an attack be coalition or insurgency they are not thinking about how grateful to have US in their lands they think about how US brought death to his family and others since they invaded their country.

It’s called grieving.

And that is Truth.

I know that the realities of war can not be dismissed, but however, when on the news do you ever hear a good thing happening in Iraq or see the faces of those loved ones over there doing something good for those people... For instance the Army soldier that was 19, female, who helped all the Iraqi kids and schools and participated, the only way we heard about that was after she was killed. That stuff needs to be aired more often so that the Iraqi people who do gets TV can see that we are doing good things and not "invading and tatooing are rule" there.

Originally posted by Johnny Redburn

What makes you think the US will follow UN guidelines and international law now when they already shattered and degraded it by invading Iraq?
The message they are spreading is that international law is supreme, unless you have the power to go above it.

lol international law.

As if it has ever really worked. If it goes against a countries interests then it's out the door. A sad fact of life unfortunately.

Originally posted by rogue1

Originally posted by Johnny Redburn

What makes you think the US will follow UN guidelines and international law now when they already shattered and degraded it by invading Iraq?
The message they are spreading is that international law is supreme, unless you have the power to go above it.

lol international law.

As if it has ever really worked. If it goes against a countries interests then it's out the door. A sad fact of life unfortunately.

International law, by definition, is what the U.S. and the U.K. say it is since those are the only countries willing to enforce it.

I should add I think Ann Coulter said something to that effect.

[edit on 1/18/2005 by djohnsto77]