Monday, April 24, 2006

    Bill O'Reilly - Totally Wrong


    I rarely listen to O'Reilly on the radio but once last week I hit the radio button as I jumped into the shower. A caller phoned in and asked Mr. O'Reilly why the media - Fox News included - didn't talk much at all about the good things that our troops are doing in Iraq. Mr. O'Reilly basically told him that it didn't matter and the only thing people cared about, and the only thing that mattered was what was happening on the battlefield. I believe he summarized to that caller with something like "the battlefield is where it all comes down to and who wins and who looses".

    I couldn't believe my wet ears. How uninformed about military strategy! Mr. O'Reilly proved to me that he suffers from the same ignorant image of our military as (it seems) many in the world do - that our presence is to just use force, to be the bullies, that only bullets flying and some body count is all that we care about - the only thing news-worthy. This is prevalent with all of the major media outlets - good news doesn't translate into ratings.

    Well Mr. O'Reilly, to you I say Where's Your Brain? Since you don't think the good of our troops is newsworthy, then I will mention a couple of more recent good items here.
    Bridge Opens Over Euphrates as Babil Gateway, By Cpl. Michael Molinaro, 2nd BCT PAO, 4th Infantry Division FOB KALSU, Iraq - Iraqis celebrated the reopening last week of the Musayib Bridge, located about 45 kilometers south of Baghdad, and officials said it will make traveling easier for residents of Babil province.

    The span, which runs over the Euphrates River in Iskandariyah, is the main thoroughfare for merchants, worshippers and families who travel north to Baghdad or south to Karbala.

    The bridge was destroyed one year ago by a terrorist car bomb.

    The reopening ceremony was attended by Salem Salh Mahdy, Babil province governor; Gen. Qais Kamza, Babil provincial police chief; and Lt. Col. Patrick Donahoe, commander, 1st Battalion, 67th Armor Regiment, 2nd Brigade Combat Team, 4th Infantry Division.
    Darkhorse Marines Deliver Wheelchair to Iraqi Girl, By Cpl. Mark Sixbey, Regimental Combat Team 5, US Marine Corps CAMP SMITTY, Iraq (March 16, 2006) -- An Iraqi family just set the noon meal on the table when some unexpected American visitors knocked on their front door.

    Marines from Company I, 3rd Battalion, 5th Marine Regiment delivered a brand new pediatric wheelchair to the family of a disabled little girl in the town of Al Hasa, March 16. They are on duty in Iraq with Regimental Combat Team 5.

    "We knew we had to help out in some way," said Staff Sgt. Charles Evers, a platoon commander for Company I. "We don't have a miracle cure, but we can at least give her a new wheelchair."
    Clean Water for 2.5 Million Basrah Residents, By Suzanne M. Fournier, Gulf Region Southern District U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Base Camp Adder (Ali Base) Iraq - Cleaner water with a more reliable water supply system will now be available for 2.5 million residents of the Basrah and Thi Qar Provinces thanks to the completion of the Basrah/Umm Qasr Water Supply refurbishment.
    Medical Providers Save Lives of Iraqi Troops, Story by Sgt. Dennis Gravelle, 138th Mobile Public Affairs Detachment MOSUL, Iraq - It's the event that every medical professional in theatre prepares for yet at the same time dreads, but saving lives is in the blood of the 47th Combat Support Hospital staff.
    Iraq, US Soldiers Provide Medical Aid, By Army Spec. C. Terrell Turner CAMP TAJI, Iraq -- April 20, 2006 - While the fight against enemy insurgents continues, Iraqi and Multinational Division Baghdad soldiers provided medical and humanitarian relief to local nationals caught in the middle and those without means to provide care for themselves.

    Iraqi soldiers secured the immediate area as the U.S. soldiers provided desperately needed care at the Taji soccer stadium April 11.

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