I acknowledge no such thing..Iraq was a mess becauseof US interference. Perhaps a couple of local farmers are happy to have cell phones...uummm, who are they calling?? The local grainery for seeds and farming equipment? Oh wait, wasnt that place blown to bits???
You have first hand account of the devastation inflicted by the invasion and yet you push that bogus propaganda that "things arent all that bad"???? Please, you seem too smart to be just another "talking head"

Ladies and Gentlemen of America i would like to open your eyes to some stuff CNN or anyother new agency wont tell you.

We open a COP (combat Outpost) before we had Concrete T-wall we had Razor wire surrounding it a Iraq from Across the sreet came over with a platter of food and gave it to us and said "Thank you for what you are doin for my beloved country" While at the Other cop Families only Son was shot to death because they helped the Americans. That was at the beginingof the Deployment...now Al quida is on the run from us, because ppl are steppin up and taking part in giving us info on where things are...weapons IED EFPs...it aint all what the media says
Violence sell just like Sex, but better.

Yeah right

Yep. Sex will always be better.... and sell more.

thats wasnt my point ya'll

If you mention sex, that is where we stop.... see the point?

Someone that has NOT been there, telling someone that has, what is really happening. My son just came home from there, his accounts are VERY DIFFERENT from the news media. As part os a special surgical unit, in 7 - 8 months only treated 6 AMERICAN combat casualties. Treated many Iraq police & military, they are starting to take back their country. We are more of a back-up than anything. More facts from those that have been there.

You might want to clean up your language and your quotes, young man.

im sorry lilith it annoys the heck outta me to see these kinds of ppl on here while i watch my friends get carried in body bags, and pack their belongings up to send home to their folks.
Its a Hard job nobody appreciates, but someones gotta do it.

Kind hard for me to sympathize with you getting angered about your perspectives on others statements. Especially when you say no one appreciates military service.

Wiccan We support the troops, noone with any sense at all is saying we do not support the troops. They are doing the best that they can given what they have been told to do.

Not agreeing with the war and policies does not constitute being anti soldier.

I am not in agreement with the war and I do hope that something good comes from a disaster.

Hey thanks wiccan for giving your two cents. Almost all that have been preaching about how horrible we have made iraq hasn't seen it. Before or after. Yeah, we broke a few things. But even when we invaded we didn't carelessly carpet bomb the cities like it was some sick video game. Most of the structures are up. Granted, U.S. troops are pretty much everywhere and life for them hasn't been the same. Most of the iraqis are greatful for our presence. And, yes, most are wishing for their government to get back on it's feet so we can leave and their lives can return to normal. Businesse are up and running as they always have. No we didn't destroy them all. Or even most.

I'm sorry for my wording symbel. I really wasn't trying to put words in your mouth.

Look guys, i know its hard to see through all the twisted media. Almost every single form of media is biased. This is why i have sympathy for most people.

it will always amaze me that some people will not believe posts from people who are there and see first hand what is going on there. i guess its just more inflamnatory posting just so they can stir up trouble and peave people off. or cnn and fox news is telling the truth and thousands of soldiers aree lieing thru there teeth., my company donates bunches of things for the troops in Iraq and afghanistan, we get tons of thanks you's from the troops telling us how much better both countrys are now compared to a few years ago. are they lieing?? i think not! forest gump is right, " stupid is as stupid does". i am done here.

GOD BLESS OUR TROOPS, AND KEEP THEM SAFE, AT HOME AND AWAY!!!

why does "someone gotta do it??"
Its a job that $ucks big time and NO ONE should be there except the Iraquis....its an injustice that you are having to watch your buddies getting carried off in body bags so that some cheez-puff eatn', porn-watching, lard-a$$ can afford to fill up his huge SUV with cheap gas so he can travel a few blocks to the 7-11 and Blockbuster.....
"These kinds of people" like me...WANT YOU HOME SAFE AND SOUND WHERE YOU BELONG AND THE BASTARD THAT PUT YOU OVER THERE, IN JAIL, WHERE HE BELONGS......

Identical letters home from Iraq were exposed in an October 11, 2003 article by Ledyard King of Gannett News Service.


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The Letter (dated September 21, 2003, published September 24, 2003, in The Register Herald)[1]:

Fruits of soldiers' efforts are visible in Kirkuk

I have been serving in Iraq for over five months now as a soldier in the 2nd Battalion of the 503rd Airborne Infantry Regiment, otherwise known as the "Rock."
We entered the country at midnight on March 26; a thousand of my fellow soldiers and I parachuted from 10 jumbo jets (known as C17s) onto a cold, muddy field in Bashur, Northern Iraq. This parachute operation was the U.S. Army's only combat jump of the war and opened up the northern front.
Things have changed tremendously for our battalion since those first cold, wet weeks spent in the mountain city of Bashur. On April 10, our battalion conducted an attack south into the oil rich town of Kirkuk, the city that has since become our home away from home and the focus of our security and development efforts.
Kirkuk is a hot and dusty city of just over a million people. The majority of the city has welcomed our presence with open arms. After nearly five months here, the people still come running from their homes, into the 110-degree heat, waving to us as our troops drive by on daily patrols of the city. Children smile and run up to shake hands and in their broken English shouting, "Thank you, Mister."
The people of Kirkuk are all trying to find their way in this new democratic environment. Some major steps have been made in these last three months. A big reason for our steady progress is that our soldiers are living among the people of the city and getting to know their neighbors and the needs of their neighborhoods. We have also been instrumental in building a new police force. Kirkuk now has 1,700 police officers. The police are now, ethnically, a fair representation of the community as a whole. So far, we have spent $500,000 from the former Iraqi regime to repair each of the station's electricity and plumbing, to paint each station and to make it a functional place for the police to work.
The battalion has also assisted in re-establishing Kirkuk's fire department, which is now even more effective than before the war.
New water treatment and sewage plants are being constructed and the distribution of oil and gas are steadily improving.
All of these functions were started by our soldiers here in this northern city and are now slowly being turned over to the newly elected city government. Laws are being rewritten to reflect democratic principles and a functioning judicial system was recently established to bridge the gap between law enforcement and the rule of law.
The quality of life and security for the citizens has been largely restored and we are a large part of why that has happened.
The fruits of all our soldiers' efforts are clearly visible in the streets of Kirkuk today. There is very little trash in the streets, many more people in the markets and shops, and children have returned to school. This is all evidence that the work we are doing as a battalion and as American soldiers is bettering the lives of Kirkuk's citizens. I am proud of the work we are doing here in Iraq and I hope all of your readers are as well.
Pfc. David Deaconson
Beckley
Chosen Co., 2nd BN (ABN), 503D INF
Iraq

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King's October 11, 2003 news story --Many soldiers, same letter.Newspapers around U.S. get identical missives from Iraq -- and numerous articles about the letters home have been carried by news services and bloggers on the internet.

WASHINGTON -- Letters from hometown soldiers describing their successes rebuilding Iraq have been appearing in newspapers across the country as U.S. public opinion on the mission sours.
And all the letters are the same.
A Gannett News Service search found identical letters from different soldiers with the 2nd Battalion of the 503rd Airborne Infantry Regiment, also known as "The Rock," in 11 newspapers, including Snohomish, Wash.
The Olympian received two identical letters signed by different hometown soldiers: Spc. Joshua Ackler and Spc. Alex Marois, who is now a sergeant. The paper declined to run either because of a policy not to publish form letters.
The five-paragraph letter talks about the soldiers' efforts to re-establish police and fire departments, and build water and sewer plants in the northern Iraqi city of Kirkuk, where the unit is based.
"The quality of life and security for the citizens has been largely restored, and we are a large part of why that has happened," the letter reads. ... It describes people waving at passing troops and children running up to shake their hands and say thank you.
It's not clear who wrote the letter or organized sending it to soldiers' hometown papers.
Six soldiers reached by GNS directly or through their families said they agreed with the letter's thrust. But none of the soldiers said he wrote it, and one said he didn't even sign it.
Marois, 23, told his family he signed the letter, said Moya Marois, his stepmother. But she said he was puzzled why it was sent to the newspaper in Olympia. He attended high school in Olympia but no longer considers the city home, she said. Moya Marois and Alex's father, Les, now live near Kooskia, Idaho.
A seventh soldier didn't know about the letter until his father congratulated him for getting it published in the local newspaper in Beckley, W.Va.
"When I told him he wrote such a good letter, he said: 'What letter?' " Timothy Deaconson said Friday, recalling the phone conversation he had with his son, Nick. "This is just not his (writing) style." ... He spoke to his son, Pfc. Nick Deaconson, at a hospital where he was recovering from a grenade explosion that left shrapnel in both his legs.
Sgt. Christopher Shelton, who signed a letter that ran in the Snohomish Herald, said Friday that his platoon sergeant had distributed the letter and asked soldiers for the names of their hometown newspapers. Soldiers were asked to sign the letter if they agreed with it, said Shelton, whose shoulder was wounded during an ambush earlier this year. ... "Everything it said is dead accurate. We've done a really good job," he said by phone from Italy, where he was preparing to return to Iraq.
Sgt. Todd Oliver, a spokesman for the 173rd Airborne Brigade, which counts the 503rd as one of its units, said he was told a soldier wrote the letter, but he didn't know who. He said the brigade's public affairs unit was not involved. ... "When he asked other soldiers in his unit to sign it, they did," Oliver explained in an e-mail response to a GNS inquiry. "Someone, somewhere along the way, took it upon themselves to mail it to the various editors of newspapers across the country."
Lt. Col. Bill MacDonald, a spokesman for the 4th infantry Division that is heading operations in north-central Iraq, said he had not heard about the letter-writing campaign.
Neither had Lt. Cmdr. Nick Balice, a spokesman for U.S. Central Command in Tampa, Fla.
A recent poll suggests that Americans are increasingly skeptical of America's prolonged involvement in Iraq. A USA Today-CNN-Gallup http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Letters_home

damn what do the troop see that most here do not.
i do not want them there, i would rather them be home but they are making for a better world. my son is on a minesweeper in the persian gulf, better there than the gulf of mexico, wake up america these folks are defending our soil by keeping terriosts off our soil, they do not always win but no one does

You need to wake up, those poor soldiers are fodder for big, capital, corporate interest..they are making the oil wells available for SHELL, EXXON, etc.....
The terrorists are already on "your soil"....they're called big business.

Symbelmyne are you even allowed to vote where you are? I think you told me once you weren't. Freedom is a wonderful thing and from time to time it must be protected from those who wish it ill.
Claims of the big oil companies running the show are more than a bit on the conspiratorial side, especailly when you take into account that off the coast of florida nearer to Cuba there are CHINESE oil rigs not American. And they aren't from shell or exxon or mobile.
What utterly amazes me is still with at least three soldiers dancing in this thread some of you would have the "Audacity" to tell us and others what we know to be true because we live it and see it, that we are liars and propagandizers.
You don't like the war, got it. We don't either, it's not very much fun being shot at by snipers or having your humvee hit by an IED. But when you stumble on or have an Iraqi tell you where large weapons caches are or where an al queada cell is and you bust them, that makes it all worth it.
Was Iraq wonderful before we came over here? If you really honestly believe that then your speaking out of ignorance. Did we blow some stuff up? Of course we did. Did we carpet bomb the place? Hell no we didn't.
The electric plants, and water treatment/pumping facilities were so bad and outdated and falling apart when we first got here, it became the first priority of the reconstruction. Don't you remember all the stories about the power outages? and now where are those stories? there gone because we fixed them.
Do things need to be fixed in the US? hell yea they do, for starters we should build some more damn oil refineries to help somehow with the cost of fuel(even tho now we are sitting on a surplus- speculators are driving the price up, not the corporations).
Iraqi'a control over 85% of their contry now (militarily) and that number is growing everyday. The soldiers will becoming home sooner rather than later. Tell me doe it make sense, I mean any kind of sense to let the world know when that will be. All that does is puts soldiers lives in danger, consentrated attacks and what not. So I am happy that you dont know when, Im happy I dont know when, but more importantly, with there being only so many ways in and out, Im happy they dont know when.
Soldiers that tell you their own experiences on here do it because we know what you don't get to hear about iraq. we dont do it to make the president or the circumstances look rosier than they really are.
As far as our good friend BIN, I wouldnt worry to much about that, more troops are being diverted to afghanistan, near the pak border, al qaeda forces will fall, the network will be uncovered and what ever plush little cave he is in(most likely a house in pakistan) he will be found, and Im pretty sure it will be with a bullet in his head.
SO relax, kick back wait for november when you and your crazy lib friends can get out and rock the vote for either the socialist guy or the socialist girl.There isnt anything you can do anyway but give yourself high blood pressure.

Doc

oh yea- this wasnt a form letter mad man.