E-Mail from Tazz, Airman in Iraq

I want to share with you an e-mail I got today — and you’ve heard me read e-mails from this soldier, this airman in the past. This is the guy who ran the control tower at Baghdad International Airport. He and his boys ended up throwing a faulty French refrigerator off the top shelf of the control tower. He says:
Hey Rush,
I am scratching my head here. None of this makes any sense…but I wonder what you think about all of this…
The national news media shows lots of our American servicemen and women dying over there in Iraq and getting killed, helicopters being shot down, roadside bombs going off…etc…etc. Yet, when you are there, when you work with Americans and Iraqis who are actively engaged in re-building the country, who are out going after the enemy…there?s this ever-present sense of optimism, this prevailing upbeat mood of doing good. Just go talk to the wounded servicemen at Brooks or Bethesda. [RUSH: And I have. He’s right.] They?ll tell you the same. Likewise, the Iraqi gentlemen (civilians) I worked with were excited about their economic prospects. They were eager for their families to experience a better life than the life they had under a totalitarian regime.
Rush, there?s an upbeat mood out there in Iraq. The country and its new democracy are moving forward. And the enemy hates it.
On the subject of ?civil war? or ?civil strife? in Iraq…
From what we can tell…there?s no ?civil war? or ?civil strife? as the news media puts it. The terrorists are coming from outside the country and killing civilians ? as many as possible ? to gain a foothold in Iraq. And they play this stuff on TV to make us sick. It?s working. We are getting sick, but Iraq is getting strong. If there really is civil strife in the country…then WHY don?t WE hear statements in the news about Shia leaders taking responsibility for Sunni killings, and vice-versa? WHY? This is why: Because they aren?t doing that Rush! THAT?S WHY we NEVER hear news reports from the so-called ?civil strife? combatants themselves. Because there aren?t any. The IRAQIS are trying to build-up their country and make it work. MEANWHILE the enemy comes and kills everyone they can, and they run away from the scene (or die in the blast themselves).
One more thought…
I hate doing math, but think about this?
Rush…there?s anywhere from 500 to 1,000 road vehicle convoys per day in the country of Iraq. [RUSH: Five hundred to 1,000 road vehicle convoys per day in the country of Iraq.] One or three of these vehicle convoys (at most) get hit by an IED each day, which destroys maybe one or two vehicles. Most convoys have anywhere from 20 to 100 vehicles. NOW, what are your odds (e.g. CNN reporter) of being tagged by an IED????
In Summary…
I remain confused, amazed, and dumbfounded by the news media view on the war. And yet Americans are buying it. WHY??? How can we believe only one side of the story without seeing the whole picture, the whole story as it unfolds? Does ANYONE really know (other than those who are there) what?s REALLY happening in Iraq??? Is there any chance of getting any of this news reporting being done right???
America is doing good things over there. Our troops are awesome. They are an inspiration, a model of courage and of selfless patriotism. Why don?t people back home trust them?
Mega Dittos Rush.
Very Respectfully,
Tazz

RUSH: How would you people answer his questions? Why do the people here distrust the troops and don’t see what’s going on as a positive? I wrote him back. I’ll just fire pointblank and tell you what I told him:
“Tazz — Back in the old days, Walter Cronkite was able to kill the Vietnam War in one newscast. The Drive-By Media is not nearly as powerful but they still have power, and for many Americans in this country — and this is a shock even still to me — but for many Americans, millions, they only get their news in 30-minute doses from the 6:30 nightly newscasts on the networks. That’s it. They don’t watch cable. They don’t listen to radio. They’re out playing bingo, croquet, whatever they’re doing, shuffleboard during the day; then they get in and drink the stuff that keeps the bowels moving and start watching Brian Williams — and that’s it. That’s all they get, and after three-and-a-half years of a steady drumbeat of failure, destruction, death, body counts, and so forth, it’s totally understandable why people would think all has been lost and all is going to hell in a handbasket over there. It’s simple human nature.
“There’s another side to this, too, and that is we can read all these e-mails that we get from soldiers in Iraq,” like I just read to you from Tazz, “who tell us what they see — but if there’s nobody in this country who is willing to tell this story from a position of leadership, then these guys can sit there and write these e-mails all day long. The simple fact of the matter is that if the news in Iraq is good, we need to hear it from the upper echelons of the administration. We need hear it in a way that is robust. We need to hear it in a way that is inspirational and motivating — and we don’t, and so since we don’t hear it — and these press conferences?
“All we hear is, ‘Yes, it’s tough, and it’s going to get tougher and things haven’t gone well and so forth.’ Tazz, I hate to tell you, but when the civies over here are not spreading the word as you feel it and see it in Iraq, you’re beating your head against a wall. It’s frustrating. And then when you’ve got the Congress, the House of Representatives particularly led by the Democrats and Nancy Pelosi, doing their level best to achieve defeat, invested in defeat, I can’t imagine how frustrating it is for you guys because I know how frustrating it is for me, an average, ordinary American civilian. But all of this stuff going on and the troops in the field, both in Afghanistan and Iraq watching all this? I don’t know why you guys haven’t thrown your guns away and said, ‘To hell with this! What’s this for?’ by now already.”