All in Iraq is just peachy. So much so.....

Kelgar · Post by **Kelgar** » October 12, 2003, 12:24 am

...that soldiers from all parts of the country seem to be "writing" letters home describing how it all "really" is!

Pittsburgh:
Spc. Nathan Whitelatch
ABLE Co., 2nd Battalion (Airborne), 503rd Infantry
Kirkuk, Iraq.
(Connellsville resident)
"I have been serving in Iraq for over five months now ..."
http://www.pittsburghlive.com/x/dailyco ... 54288.html

Albuquerque
Pfc. Jason Marshall of Edgewood is a 2001 graduate of Moriarty High School and the son of new Moriarty High principal Wayne Marshall and his wife, Keli.
"I have been serving in Iraq for over five months now ..."
http://www.mvtelegraph.com/opinion/8393 ... -11-03.htm

Utica, NY:
Sgt. 1st Class Edwin Gargas
"I have been serving in Iraq for over five months now ..."
http://www.uticaod.com/archive/2003/09/ ... 14782.html

Everett, WA:
Sgt. Chris Shelton
"I have been serving in Iraq for over five months now ..."
Daily Herald

Skogen · Post by **Skogen** » October 12, 2003, 1:42 am

different guys writting the same letter! OMG amazing!

wtf!?!

Rivera Bladestrike · Post by **Rivera Bladestrike** » October 12, 2003, 2:12 am

Wtf!?

Dregor Thule · Post by **Dregor Thule** » October 12, 2003, 2:38 am

Hahaha

Toshira · Post by **Toshira** » October 12, 2003, 3:18 am

Hearts and minds...and pocketbooks.

Aabidano · Post by **Aabidano** » October 12, 2003, 10:21 am

Standard combat tour is 13 months if I'm not mistaken...

Lots of west coast US Navy\Marines have been spending 6 months out of every ~2 years over there since about 1952. About time the army got to eat some sand too

Xzion · Post by **Xzion** » October 12, 2003, 10:49 am

...thats just strange as a bitch

Fairweather Pure · Post by **Fairweather Pure** » October 12, 2003, 10:58 am

I wonder what the explaination for this is... It definately makes a person wonder why the hell the exact same letter appears in 4 different places, suppossedly written by 4 different people. Low and behold, they all paint the Iraqi sitauation in a positive light too!

Chmee · Post by **Chmee** » October 12, 2003, 12:31 pm

http://www.theolympian.com/home/news/20 ... 1390.shtml

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."

Deward · Post by **Deward** » October 13, 2003, 10:15 am

Letter writing campaigns are not uncommon. Political parties do this sort of thing all the time. One person writes a letter and then it is disributed to party members in different towns and cities. These people then submit it to their local editors using their own name and address.

From what I have heard, Iraq is not such a shit storm as the media would have you believe. In general, the majority of the county is peaceful. I believe the media is over sensationalizing the sporadic fighting and this will just encourage the US to stay longer. I want the US out of Iraq as soon as possible but as long as the media keeps saying that it is still a huge war zone then the government has an excuse to stay longer.

Aabidano · Post by **Aabidano** » October 13, 2003, 10:29 am

Deward wrote:I believe the media is over sensationalizing the sporadic fighting and this will just encourage the US to stay longer.

They don't have any dirt to air right now, have to make the best of what they have I guess. Good news doesn't increase ratings.

*Edit - What prompted my previous post were claims by a freinds son that he hadn't been able to shower or eat "regular" chow in 4 months. And other claims I've seen on TV by weeping "Marine Moms" (that term makes me want to spew) that think thier kids have been gone too long.

Voronwë · Post by **Voronwë** » October 13, 2003, 12:27 pm

for the most part, most of Iraq is in pretty decent shape i think Deward. I think you are right. The area between (and including) Tikrit and Baghdad is the problem area.

obviously all is not well in Iraq or Bush would not have reorganized supervisory control over operations to Rice. That doesnt necessarily mean things are terrible, but i do think that Rumsfeld and Powell not being able to work together was a problem. i would speculate this is more the fault of Rumsfeld.

Basically, if you watched the Sunday interview shows, there were many different spins on the main points on Iraq, and some Republican senators are concerned that Bush does not have his immediate subordinates under control.

http://www.cnn.com/2003/ALLPOLITICS/10/ ... index.html

i do think that the news media could do more to show successful rebuilding efforts.

masteen · Post by **masteen** » October 13, 2003, 2:37 pm

I agree Voro. Rummy seems to me to be exactly the type of asshole that wants to levy sanctions and not rebuild, kinda like what happened in Europe after WW1.

Powell is prolly very frustrated from having to deal with all the assclowns in the administration, and I couldn't blame him if this is true.