WAR WITHOUT THE SPIN
By Oliver North
WASHINGTON, D.C. -- Last week, our nation mourned the 1000th U.S. death in
Iraq. The Kerry campaign and the so-called mainstream media pounced on the
report with partisan furor, using the "milestone" as "proof" that the war in
Mesopotamia is going wrong -- and that it's the fault of George W. Bush.
On the campaign trail, Sen. Kerry complains that President Bush has failed
to "take the target off American troops." His campaign operatives talk
anonymously on background about "equipment deficiencies," a "lack of body
armor" and "deeply diminished morale" among our troops. Meanwhile, The New
York Times, gloomily reports that, "In the past five months, the Americans
have relinquished control over much of Anbar and Salahaddin, provinces that
include cities like Ramadi and Fallujah, where the guerrilla insurgency
churns on with unabated intensity." What's going on here? Are we really
losing the war in the bloody, scorched streets of Iraq?
Those are just some of the issues I went to investigate with a FOX News "War
Stories" team. On this, my fourth trip to Iraq in the last 18 months, we
were embedded with the 2nd Battalion, 4th Marine Regiment, assigned to the
1st Brigade of the U.S. Army's 1st Infantry Division. These units are part
of the 1st Marine Expeditionary Force -- posted in Al Ramadi -- the capital
of Al Anbar Province -- the largest in Iraq and in the heart of the
so-called "Sunni Triangle." Here's what we found wrong with the Kerry-media
spin:
-- "... Americans have relinquished control ..." Notwithstanding press
accounts to the contrary, no U.S. commander has "relinquished control" over
the capital or the province -- which stretches from the western suburbs of
Baghdad all the way to the Saudi, Jordanian and Syrian borders. As our
cameras documented, U.S. soldiers, Marines and increasing numbers of Iraqi
National Guardsmen are very much engaged in countering those who would
prevent Iraq from ever becoming a democratic country. And despite terrorist
efforts to disrupt reconstruction efforts and attack Iraqi civil
infrastructure, U.S. Army, Navy "Sea Bee" and Marine civil affairs officers
continue to open new schools, electrical facilities, water plants, hospitals
and police stations.
-- "... the guerilla insurgency churns on ..." There is no doubt that the
level of combat has increased since I was last in Iraq in April and May.
Bombings, ambushes and indirect fire attacks against coalition and Iraqi
government forces have multiplied because the militant sheikhs and imams who
foment the fighting know their day is done if the Iraqis successfully hold a
democratic election next year. Their only hope is to cause enough casualties
that we withdraw before the ballots are cast, so the closer we get to that
election, the greater the violence.
But this is no "guerilla insurgency." By definition, "guerillas" or
"insurgents" represent an organized political alternative to an established
regime. Radical Sunni and Shi'ite clerics like Muqtada Al-Sadr, who tortured
and killed 200 men, women and children, and buried them in a mass grave in
Najaf, don't promise to make things better for the Iraqi people. Nor do the
remaining Baath Party warlords or foreign extremists like Abu Musab Al
Zarqawi. These men inciting gunfights in Iraq aren't "insurgents," they are
anarchists. They offer no unified "platform" other than "jihad!" When they
aren't shooting at coalition or Iraqi security forces, they are trying to
kill each other. Dangerous? Yes. A "guerilla army"? No.
-- President Bush has failed to "... take the target off American troops
..." Kerry should take a few minutes on Sunday evening to listen to some of
the scores of "American troops" I interviewed in Iraq just a few weeks ago.
They tell a much better story than Dan Rather -- and it would give the
Massachusetts senator an idea of what combat is really like. Not one of them
complains about being a "target." Instead, they all believe that the
terrorists are the "targets" -- and explain that they would rather fight
them in Iraq than here.
-- "... equipment deficiencies," a "lack of body armor ..." What are these
people talking about? Watch "War Stories" this Sunday and see if Marine
Capt. Mark Carlton, wounded by an enemy RPG -- and alive because of his body
armor -- would agree. The same goes for the troops. All those I was with
certainly seemed to be well enough equipped to survive terrorist I.E.D.s and
fight back -- using some of the best technology and equipment in the
world -- weapons, UAVs, helicopters, communications ... and guts.
-- "…deeply diminished morale…" Where? In the Kerry camp, maybe. But not in
Ramadi, Iraq. The best barometer of troop morale is the re-enlistment rate.
It's been that way since Valley Forge in 1777-78. When things are going
badly and morale is down, so are extensions and re-enlistments. But in the
2nd Battalion, 4th Marines that we documented in Iraq, so many Marines have
asked to stay in the service that the battalion commander, Lt. Col. P.J.
Kennedy, has had to request a waiver from established limits.
Unfortunately, the pessimists in the press -- "reporting" from hotel
balconies in Baghdad using videotape bought from Arab cameramen traveling
with the enemy -- rarely get out in the field to see any "good news."
Candidate Kerry ought to know better, but he retains the same "blame America
first" mentality that has governed his thinking since Vietnam. From what
I've seen firsthand, the Kerry-media spin of a bloody disaster for the
United States in Iraq is as phony as Dan Rather's documents. |
