The other side of the story

[lcpd24]

Iraq:Another Story


An e-mail from Iraq.....doesn't quite sound like what I read in the papers!!
V/R, Jim Gould
COMNAVAIRPAC N421C2
H-60 Class Desk
Phone: (619) 545-4956
DSN: 735-4956
Fax: (619) 545-1303

Subject: FW: Straight Scoop From Iraq By Senior Chief Art Messer


This letter goes along with what I experienced in Baghdad. God love our press.


Copy of this letter was sent by Senior Chief Art Messer, 22 Naval Construction Regiment (Forward) Task Force Charlie U. S. Navy Seabees to a friend in the States.





Dear Post 45,





I caught wind of and read the recent news articles being circulated back there in the states.





I figured I could clarify some things for you. As usual the news media has blown some things way out of proportion. The countryside is getting more safe by the day despite all the attacks you are hearing about.





Imagine every shooting incident or robbery committed in LA or Portland being blown way out of proportion. This is a country where most of the Saddam Hussein thugs are being chased around like scared rabbits by Coalition forces. It is literally open season on them!





We hunt them down like animals. There were about a million soldiers in the Iraqi army at the beginning of hostilities and most of them took off before we attacked. There are some that were very loyal to Saddam that are trying to sneak around and take pot shots at us.





We are cleaning them up pretty fast. There are also thugs from other countries running around, like Iran and Syria. Well the Iraqis hate these thugs as much as we do. So the Iraqi people are hunting them down too! I can honestly say 98% of the population of Iraq love us and they do not want us to leave...ever! They say as long as we are here they feel safe.





What is going on with the countries infrastructure? Everything is going well! The railroad is running again! The railroad has not run since 1991. In the city of Hilllah, the power stays on
24 hours a day and it has more power than prior to the war. Some Iraqis are worried about getting too much food from the coalition because they don't have enough room in their homes to store it.





The markets are open. The Seabees have rebuilt all of the schools and put in furniture and chalkboards. The kids used to sit on the floor! Now they have nice desks to sit at.





Commerce is running. New money is being printed. The Iraqi Dinar has stabilized and is now increasing in value. Most of the Iraqi men want to buy Chevy pickups (I told them a Dodge Ram with a Cummins Diesel is better Ha Ha). They pretty much want any vehicle made by General Motors. The highways and bridges are being repaired. In the Universities, the girls have tossed their deshakas (long black dresses with head and face coverings)
and are now wearing western style clothes and even some are wearing short sleeves.





The favorite drink is Pepsi, followed by Coke. They want us to bring them any and everything American. Any item made in America or that is from America is worth money over here.





The newspapers and television paint a picture of doom and gloom and that we are having major problems over here. That is just not the case. The Iraqis have a saying about the situation over here "Every day is Better than the day before". Life is flowing back in to this country and it is fun to watch and I am so glad I got to watch it happen. Some days watching the Iraqi people is like watching the faces of little kids on Christmas Day! Many of them are walking around in a daze wondering what to do with their freedom. They are starting businesses everywhere. They want to build shopping malls and factories, they want McDonalds and Jack in the Box and Pizza Hut. Of course anything American Fast Food, because of the stories the troops are telling them. We give them our old newspapers and magazines that you have been sending us and they are absolutely flabbergasted when they read them!





They want us to keep bringing them. They read every single page even the advertisements over and over! This would be a good time for media to get their magazines going over here because the Iraqis just love them.





So in short you see I will give you the straight scoop and keep you informed of what is up over here.





I will sign off for now and send this along. Thanks again to all of you for your support.
My mailing address has changed. The older one is no longer working. I will tell you the new one as soon as we get it.





Senior Chief Art Messer
22 Naval Construction Regiment (Forward) Task Force Charlie U. S. Navy Seabees "With Compassion For Others, We Build, We Fight, For Peace With Freedom"





FOR GOD AND COUNTRY!

[revwardoc]

That's a great email. I hope its true, but I'm not sure we're doing them any favors by opening up MickeyD's, Jack-in-the-Cracks, and Pizza the Hutts. They'd be better off with falafa burgers and camel-on-a-stick!

[Boats]

Don't laugh about that - I saw Kentucky Fried Chicken in Jeddia Saudia Arabia when I worked there back in 1975 and 76. These little American fast food joints will pop up everywhere before too long.

It's good to hear some good news and that things are getting better over there. I'm not saying its safe but its getting better. If you feed people and they have a few creature comforts they will be pretty much satisfied in the short run.

Of course they will want jobs and that doesn't seem to be a problem unless they are too lazy to go out and work?

Dennis I thank you for the feed back and I look forward to hearing more positive things in the weeks to come.

[darrels joy]

Copied and retransmitted.
Thank you,
Joy

[MORTARDUDE]

Great letter !! Have emailed to a bunch of folks !! It is something you sure don't see in the drumbeat of negativity from the "unbiased press".

Larry

[revwardoc]

When I was stationed at Clark AB in the PI, I spent a lot of time in downtown Angeles. One thing they had there was a KFC. I never got anything there but one buddy did. He ordered a 3 piece meal with mashed taters and a biscuit. When he opened the box we both just stared at it in amazement. Neitherof us had ever seen achicken witha long skinny tail:ek: , and aren't potatoes supposed to be white:cd:? It sure put me off the Colonel's food for a long time.

By the way, in Quebec the franchise is PFK (Poulet Frie du Kentucky).

[BLUEHAWK]

lcpd -

GREAT news, just great, thanks for sending it along!

Hearing of this just irks me more and more that with all their resources and money our news networks cannot or will not get it right...if they are not doing this on purpose, then they are the most negligent haughty cretins imaginable. If they are doing it on purpose, then it's tantamount to treason and an abuse of their freedom of the Press.

[Seascamp]

This is close to what I?ve been hearing from the industrial rehab sector. The people I hear from are just astounded at the level of neglect in all industrial sectors. So what they run into is a lot of cannibalized equipment where one sacrificial piece of machinery has been stripped of parts to use on other machinery. As they say, ?this stuff has been running on a wing and a prayer, spit and bailing wire?. Plus when Saddam and his cronies pulled out, they did a lot of damage to the power generation plants so things were real, real grim at first. But as newly manufactured parts roll in, things get fixed, things brightened up and now I?m told that the light at the end of the tunnel isn?t a freight train coming at them after all. Let?s hope so. And maybe we?ll get the straight scoop when it?s politically advantages for the media to present a more balanced view of the actual situation. We?ll see.

Scamp