May 27, 2005
News From The Home Front
Printer FriendlyBy: Oliver North
FALLUJAH, Iraq -- For three weeks, my FOX News team has been immersed in little more than what's been happening around us. Memorial Day isn't, as they say over here, on our radar screens.
The soldiers, sailors, airmen and Marines we've been covering and living with in Al Anbar Province have been focused on chasing terrorists, avoiding IEDs and staying alive. They call it situational awareness -- being alert to only the friendly and enemy situation in the immediate vicinity is an absolute necessity for these young Americans in harm's way in this hot, dusty and dangerous place. And because these troops believe that what they are doing is important to their families and their country, it's a good thing they can't see what passes for "news" back in the states.
Earlier this week, we arrived at TQ, once one of Saddam's air force bases, now a major U.S. logistics installation between Fallujah and Baghdad. While we waited in a sweltering concrete hangar for a helicopter flight to Baghdad, one of the Marines offered the use of his "office," a plywood enclosure inside the revetment, so that we could charge the batteries on our equipment. Unfortunately, he also had recent editions of several U.S. newspapers and magazines, and a television. We made the mistake of reading the papers and turning on the TV.
The single satellite service in the region that airs U.S. programming carries only one cable news network, and it isn't FOX. Like the periodicals, the broadcast was a broadside of anti-American propaganda, worthy of a radical Islamic website. There were stories about how the Newsweek fable about U.S. prison guards desecrating the Quran "could have been true." Others provided the latest casualty figures from IEDs and suicide car bombers. Several highlighted the conviction of a U.S. soldier for "war crimes."
As is commonplace, various "experts" derided U.S. policies and tactics, bemoaned the "terrible consequences" for America in the region and whined about the absence of an "exit strategy." In one, Gen. Wesley Clark proffered a diatribe on U.S. failures. The rest of the "news" was about Michael Jackson's pedophilia trial and the threat of a "nuclear option" in the U.S. Senate over judicial nominees. There were no success stories, no mention of courageous U.S. troops carrying the fight to the enemy and no "knowledgeable authorities" testifying about how things just might be getting better in Iraq.
Perhaps it's just fatigue after three weeks in the field. It's possible that after six trips to Iraq and two to Afghanistan, I'm "too close to the story" to be "objective." Conceivably, by living with those fighting the war, I can't "see the forest for the trees." Maybe those who report from New York, Washington or Atlanta really do have "the big picture" in clearer focus than those of us who document what's happening at the "tip of the spear." But I doubt it.
Despite print and broadcast stories to the contrary, the hundreds of young Americans we've interviewed and covered on this trip haven't lost their elan. Notwithstanding the negative news, they continue to believe that they are winning this war. And on this third Memorial Day of Operation Iraqi Freedom, their successes include:
During Operation Matador along the remote Syrian border, the 3rd Battalion, 2nd Marines fought nonstop for seven days and nights, capturing and killing hundreds of the enemy, perhaps even Abu Musab al-Zarqawi. Though they mourned the loss of nine of their brothers in arms during the first phase of this operation, these troops are back into the fight again. Only FOX's broadcast reports this action.
The soldiers of the 1st Battalion of the 503rd Infantry deployed to Iraq from Korea. Many of them will be away from their families for more than two years. Though living conditions at Corregidor Combat Outpost are as "Spartan" as any I have seen since Khe Sanh or Con Thien in Vietnam, they go out every day with Iraqi troops and commandos to hunt down elusive terrorists in the capital city of Iraq's largest province. They are ignored by the press.
Many of the Marines and Navy Medical CORPSMEN in the 1st Battalion, 5th Marines are back in Iraq for their third seven-month combat deployment. Yet, I detected no carping or complaining as they carried out 'round-the-clock raids and patrols, manned checkpoints and stood watch side-by-side with Iraqi troops in the heart of the Sunni triangle. This isn't considered to be "news"?
All of the soldiers, sailors and Marines serving on advisory and assistance teams who spend day and night training and operating with the new Iraqi military and police units commend the growing competence, professionalism and courage of their counterparts. The media overlook them.
Press reports repeatedly cite American vulnerabilities to IEDs and homicidal suicide attacks. Yet, the "mainstream media" are strangely silent about the depot the Marines established to "up-armor" every wheeled vehicle in Iraq by October so that every Marine will have the best available protection.
Civil Affairs teams of U.S. soldiers, medics, Marines, Navy Corpsmen and Sea Bees provided $500 million in medical supplies, improved a rural medical clinic serving 40,000 Iraqis, helped jump-start small businesses in Fallujah and built sanitation facilities for a 275-student elementary school. Our press treated it like a state secret.
These are just a few examples of the good news from Iraq that won't be news at home.
Since this is Memorial Day weekend, I'm going to get down on my knees to thank God for those who have made the ultimate sacrifice serving our nation and pray for those who do so today. And I'm going to slip in another prayer that those who report "the news" here at home will yet report on some of the successes that these brave Americans have wrought with their blood, sweat and tears. Perhaps you'll join me.
Posted by redguy at May 27, 2005 12:01 AM
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