Perhaps to some this may now seem “behind the times”, but I think it remains timely. This is an e-mail I received through channels from someone “on the ground” in Iraq. This was delivered to me before we officially handed power over to the Iraqis.
It is my fervent hope that we will finally HEAR some of this stuff on the mainstream media. Though, the more I study the so-called mainstream media, the more it is clear they’re not only less and less mainstream, they’re less and less watched. Perhaps we ARE hearing this stuff, because we are a more effective media than the methods that have become “traditional”.
As far as I can tell, there isn’t a honest, decent person in the world who should NOT be happy and excited when reading the following.
I have implied permission to post this information (we were asked to spread the word).
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Hey Everyone,
I just wanted to give you all another update as the hand-over of power is around the corner. We've been pretty busy getting ready. The negative press you hear about everyday is less than half of what is really going on.
The transfer of sovereignty is all about giving the Iraqis complete control of their country. It's been somewhat difficult to teach the local municipalities how to act in a democracy. Instead of simply taking whatever the government happens to give them, they're learning how to make the government work for them.
So, we are taking a step back and handing off the reins to them. In reality this has been happening for the past few months. >From the Civil Affairs standpoint it means that instead of us directly helping the Iraqis, we are helping them to help themselves.
The Iraqis we've been dealing with are more than capable of taking control. We'll still be around assisting with the growing pains of the new government, but it's all through Iraqi channels now. The insurgent attacks you see in the news are the utterly desperate attempts of the enemy to derail this whole process one last time.
I've read articles in the press that describe the anti-Coalition/anti-Iraqi forces as 'freedom fighters' and 'revolutionaries.' Anyone who tries to kill Marines and soldiers who deliver medical supplies, or Iraqi women who wash laundry for the Americans, or Iraqi police officers is not interested in 'freedom.' The only thing they are fighting for is a destabilization of the area, and that will not happen. They know this, which is why they are getting so desperate right now.
It seems to me there are some members of the domestic and international media who are actively attempting to distort the truth for their own means. I've said it before, but this is a fight happening on two simultaneous fronts. There is the physical fight and the war of perception and ideas. We are all involved in the second front, and in reality that is where we will win in the end.
So, I'm asking you all to stay vigilant. It's a tough battle, but we are bringing liberty to this part of the world. This is the way it has always been. Liberty has not seen an easy introduction anywhere. But that is why we are here in Iraq. By bringing liberty to a land that has never known her, we are helping to secure our own liberty for the future.
There is much good going on over here. The towns we're responsible for now have a higher standard of living than at any time under Saddam. The Iraqis will not soon forget all the help we have given.
President Reagan correctly called America "the city set on a hill." Let us never forget who we really are and our true place in the world. We set the highest example of justice, liberty and freedom in the world. So, we are counting on you to continue the good fight at home, spreading truth wherever you are. Keep your spirits up. Don't give in to pessimism, apathy or despair. Together we will be successful and America will again prove that it is "the city set on a hill."
I thank you for all your support and I hope to hear from you soon.
God Bless and Semper Fidelis.
Love, Rob
Lt. Robert Nofsinger, USMC
Ramadi, Iraq
2 comments:
Thank you for posting that letter. From time to time I give into the common Merkan temptation to wonder why we spend so much of our tax money helping "fix" other countries instead of spending that money working out our domestic problems. Reading a letter like this does help encourage me that there are good reasons to be over there. It doesn't totally lay to rest the concerns that we need to be addressing those issues here and fixing them here, but it does help justify the good we are doing there. We are often told by the media that those other countries don't even want us over there and in fact resent our money too. The deposed governments and tyrants certainly don't care for us, but the people who have had to live in such awful conditions deserve better. As a nation, we symbolize democracy to the rest of the world. I think it is a big part of the Merkan way to want to help bring other countries up to our standard of living, to "westernize" the world in the best sense of the word. Again, there are those who resent that because the last thing they want to see happen is for us to reproduce our culture in their part of the world. I can see both sides of that issue as well. Part of the reason I chose Political Science as my major was being fascinated by issues like these and being willing to endlessly discuss them. Thanks for providing me a forum to keep my amateur hand in.
-k
I appreciate your comment! Thank you! My personal opinion is that what we need here "at home" is not more money (this year the Education system alone returned $2 Billion to the Federal Treasury because it couldn't spend it) but better politics. Our political administrators need to "work smarter not harder", to care about the solution more than the problem, and to stop claiming more money will "fix it" when what most of our systems need is less regulation, less administration, and more good elbow grease. Imagine if we hired more teachers instead of paying for breakfast, lunch, and now dinner, more administrators, and thicker textbooks. Imagine if we eliminated the cumbersome middle-men for health care, reduced lawsuit liability for doctors and hospitals, and made healthcare AFFORDABLE again instead of claiming we need to pay higher taxes to subsidize each other. I'd love to see an actual budget for a hospital, see where "our money" goes. I bet doctors, like teachers, are wickedly abused by the system. And this from a guy who doesn't use them.
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