Are there any soldiers who have served in Iraq who can share a piece of their experience?

Question

I have never depended on the media to give me a true story. I do not know any soldiers, only a past relationship with Navy Seal who served in Vietnam. If you can share, thank you.

Thank you to all of you. I have tried to be a good citizen by being as informed as possible since a young age. Brendon, you have backed up what I have thought and I appreciate it. I have shelves of well read books, some used to be banned even in our country, USA. Colin Powell's story sits next to Malcom X's, as does that of Buddah next to my husband's Bible, and many other books. The point being, that there is a young girl over there-Afghanastan or Iraq now able to go to school. It might be another generation that she would have near the opportunities I have, but the fact that she can read will mean she will know her choices. Thank you again for your service dear soldiers.

Answer 1

You're wise not to trust what the media tells you. Anyone with any shred of ACTUAL experience in the outside world can tell you there's an obvious bias to most media reporting, as well as an end reason for what they report to you, how they do it, and why. I served in Iraq, during OIF 1, more specifically in Baghad... I saw a lot of journalists, TV crews, reporters, and visiting diplomats. First of all, 99% of them only stay for maybe a day or two, so scared are they of venturing out and seeing anything that they also only stay at the airport, or maybe venture to the Green Zone. Generally the footage you see of rioting Iraqis screaming and shaking their fists is provided by Arab media--which, if anything, is even more biased--or at least by correspondents of AP/Reuters of Arab descent. Most TV reporters would never dare to actually go to the scene of an IED bombing or rocket attack or riot. Even that worthless so-called Iraq Study Group, which the media has happily pounced on as the end-all authority for what's "really going on", spent only a short few hours in the Green Zone before they left. Yeah, now that's really a wide scope of a hard effort to get a first-hand view of what's going on across the whole country--by going to the Green Zone. That's great journalism, there.

There's no doubt that life in Iraq is hard and that there's a lot of chaos there; most of that is being perpetrated by Iraqis vs. Iraqis and by foreign fighters vs. everybody. Most of the death and killing is NOT done by Americans, and frankly it hasn't ever really been that way. The majority of Iraqi deaths during this whole thing has been done by non-American hands. However, to assume that all of this chaos is thanks to American interference and presence is ridiculous; this is really just the latest outbreak in thousands of years of chaos in that part of the world. No doubt you'll hear a lot of anti-war types chime that Saddam was a stabilizing force and that life was better before we toppled him, but that depends entirely on WHO YOU TALK TO. Saddam was a secular Sunni thug would gained power by climbing the ranks of a party that itself gained power by brutality--and Saddam himself gained his rank through murder and blackmail, and kept it the same way. Members and supporters of his party, and those who he kept happy by supporting their tribes/sects/towns by buying their loyalty, are the ones you see on TV claiming life was better under Saddam--because life WAS better for them under Saddam. For the rest of Iraq--the majority--life is better now, even with the ongoing problems. They have far more freedoms now than they did before, and most are grateful for it. I knew Iraqis, personally, who had lived in fear under Saddam, who had lost family (or in some cases, ears or limbs) to his thugs. I do not regret removing him from power, one bit.

The reasons for the situation continuing to fester lie partially with the way things were handled in the beginning, particularly after the initial invasion, by the Americans, and also heavily on the ineptitude of Iraqis in general to manage themselves cohesively. Religious, racial, and even tribal and familial ties are central to an Iraqi's universe and are inseperable from their view of reality, and culturally they are brought up to be suspicious of anyone not in their religious sect, their race, and yes, even their tribe. It's a culture defined by fiercely maintaining division, and by those differing groups all asserting their importance, authority, and autonomy. Chaos is simple ingrained into that area and no hand-wringing by American politicians and reporters can fix it... mostly because American culture and day-to-day life is so vastly different from that part of the world. But our culture and current societal points-of-view are relatively new and novel to most of the rest of the world, especially to a part of the world that is so vehemently suspicious of progress, outside influence, and change, even if the change would be for the better and would ultimately save them from sinking further into chaos. This is a country where people will stand around watching a betterment project underway--providing a village with electricity, for example--then as soon as the American contractors and military engineers leave, the head sheikhs will sell the generators, people will rip the copper wiring and fixtures out of their own homes and sell them (and will sometimes do this to other people's homes), and within a few days all them will come right back and scream at us, demanding to know why they don't have electricity. Seriously.

For now, I digress... sufficed to say, there's a lot you won't ever hear or see on TV, and much of that is what GOOD is actually being done to try to bring some stability to these people's lives, even the ones who don't sabotage themselves. There are two basic reasons you don't ever see that: one, because spectacularly bad news is a reliable ratings-maker; and two, because showing something good being done and seeing Iraqis actually thanking Americans for helping them (believe me, that happens a lot) would actually cast some legitimacy on both our being there and on Bush's leadership. GASP! We can't have that, though... it's far too popular a thing now to go about bashing him and picking on all of his mistakes. I've yet to see any of the more prominent nit-pickers point out any of the good things we've done over there, much less come up with any solutions to the same problems they're nitpicking. Big surprise, huh?

I should also mention that the vast majority of politicians and celebrities who DID bother to fly over and see us were people who supported us and what we were doing--there is no such thing as supporting one and not the other, I'm afraid. The soldier is as much a part of his mission as the mission is driven by the soldier--there is no separation, because neither can exist without the other. All I have to say to those who disagree with the mission is to stop pretending you support us and not our mission and doing something more productive with your time, like maybe coming up with some hard solutions instead of hot air... that helps us a hell of a lot more than by undermining us on international TV. We aren't the only ones who see that... the Iraqis do, too.

Answer 2

I served in Iraq in a Brigade TOC (headquarters). We had cable TV news running 24x7 and I was able to compare what the media was saying against ground truth.

The media only reports the bad news and then will choose the most exaggerated account. And most of the reporters talking about Iraq have no clue whatsoever because they never go out and see events first-hand.

Answer 3

Its hot, a kind of hot that is almost indescribable. When it rains, and it rarely does, it is so damn humid, its almost unbareable. We wear IBA's which add 10 degrees of heat to what we are already experiencing and cover up most of visible skin, as i was a 50 gunner in a hummvee. The cities are a mess, with all of the religious factions destroying much of what we are trying to rebuild for them. Most of the people are very happy to see us, and the children love to talk with us, its funny, many of them are very interested in knowing us. As everyone has said, dont believe the media. I always get pissed if a journalist is killed. We are subjected to weeks of memorial coverage on television about their life, but if it is a soldier, all we hear is a damn number, its sickening. I didn't want to be there, but i did my job, every day, and did it honorably. We do good things there, but in my humble opinion, we should not be there any longer.

Answer 4

Well... I agree with you for not paying attention to the media. I personally am not a soldier yet, but my brother served in Afghanistan for a short time. He only guarded transport trucks but when he was going through cities he said they were pretty bad and he said he couldnt imagine growing up there. My buddy Matt was in Baghdad, Iraq and worked at a station where they kept terrorist suspects. He said that he could go into cities and most of the public weren't enemies they had no hatred toward him. He felt that he was doing something good for them so I guess he believed he was there for a good reason. He was in the general area of a mortar attack I guess and got blasted with some shrapnel but he's good now. Haven't talked to him in like 3 months though idk.

Answer 5

Hahahahahaha.... the seen my husband turning out to be a member of the militia and going to conflict via "pay" makes me chortle uncontrollably. people haven't any theory how LITTLE we get payed. My husband, as an E-3, makes decrease than 30,000 a year alongside with all of his allowances and such. i will fairly and finished-heartedly say that his pay has no longer something to do with it. moving their households to Iraq? Are you insane?! Why might everyone deliver their family contributors with them to a conflict zone? My husband grew to become into 26.5 years previous while he desperate to connect the militia. He wasn't "the adolescents of usa", so please do no longer generalize all women and adult adult males individuals who connect the militia as such. all forms of folk from all walks of existence make certain to serve the militia for various motives. None of those motives are any of your business enterprise the two. Its an exceedingly very own determination that ought to be respected. what's your actual question besides? Do you fairly must be attentive to why people serve in the militia or are you only voicing your opposition of the conflict? people ought to realize that those 2 issues do no longer circulate hand-in-hand. definite, the conflict sucks and that i do in comparison to something approximately it. It does not exchange the actuality that i visit continuously help and know our troops nevertheless.