A Debate In Search of a Clue
Some grunts on the ground offer one:
During last month’s heated, all-night debate on Capitol Hill about when and if the U.S. should withdraw from Iraq, I asked several military officers of different ages and ranks about their thoughts on a potential pullout. Nearly every one stressed how important his or her work here has been—and will be. “If we leave within months, Iraq will be a province of Iran,” one colonel said. “Everyone with any education or skills who hasn’t already left will end up leaving.”
A mortarman with the 25th Infantry stationed in Tal Afar stressed that he thought the American media has not been reporting what really goes on during daily ops across the war zone. “It’s all about body counts,” he said. Marines out in the former Wild West of Anbar province said the same. They are proud of the job they’ve done in cleaning up what was once considered a lost, Al Qaeda-infested area. They wondered why America hasn’t heard MORE of that news.
A sergeant 1st class with the 5th Battalion, 7th Cavalry, whose unit is attached to the Marines near Habbaniyah, patrols daily around Al Anbar province. This is his third tour, and he’s confident that progress is being made, despite what he calls early missteps in policy. “I think [Americans] understand our sacrifice, but they don’t understand that we’re just not ready to leave.”
Read the whole thing. Thanks, Instapundit, for pointing out we need to add Popular Mechanics to the same strange list as Der Spiegel and a couple of hardy freelance embed bloggers who, in this great world of modern media, seem to be the only ones who are even trying.
Posted by Jules Crittenden at 2:58 am on Saturday, August 18, 2007
One Response to “A Debate In Search of a Clue”
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August 20th, 2007 at 5:53 pm
Very different from the NYT’s seven.