Posted on 05/28/2006 7:33:29 AM PDT by theworkersarefew
Congressman Pence Meets with Hoosier Soldiers in Iraq
May 23, 2006 04:18 PM EDT
Congressman Pence Meets with Soldiers in Iraq
1st Sgt. Darren Thomas of Bloomington
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Indiana Congressman Mike Pence recently returned from Iraq. Pence took with him a small WISH-TV camera as he met with Indiana soldiers and talked to them about their mission.
The day began at 4 a.m., the start of a 24-hour day in Operation Iraqi Freedom. It's a 2-hour ride aboard a C-130 cargo plane to Mosul, a bus ride to the military base and a reminder of war.
Soldiers have repeatedly said the media does not tell the real story. Now it is their turn.
"I've heard an old saying in the media...if it bleeds it leads," 1st Sgt. Darren Thomas of Bloomington said. "I've heard that a hundred times, and it's a shame that's true because 85 to 95 percent of what we do over here is not violent at all and that doesn't get covered as much as schools and kids."
"We help train the Iraqi police. We do a lot of stuff for the community, the infrastructure over here. You hear very little about that one, too," Thomas said. "It's always the downed helicopters and the car bombs that goes on. It's here. It's a danger every day, but it's certainly not all we're doing here, and it would be nice to get a little bit more of the other stuff covered a little better. But that's up to the media."
Army Sgt. Ron Gerard is from Carmel. He said most Iraqis are good recruits for training.
"It's kind of hard to come from a country where you were told what to do," Gerard said. "Now they have the freedom and they're kind of like 'what do we do?' So we're here as a guiding hand for them."
The soldiers sent messages home from Iraq through 24-Hour News 8's camera.
"I love my family, and I love the people of Indiana," Lt. John Johanningsmeier of Scottsburg said.
A soldier told Pence to take care. Pence responded, "Remember what you said."
I later asked Congressman Pence what Sgt. Russell Sanders of Reelville said.
"Tell me what you know now you didn't know in January. In a shy way he said 'it isn't as bad as I thought it would be,'" Pence said.
"The common denominator I got from a lot of soldiers is 'are we losing the will to be here' because every one of them sees the light at the end of the tunnel in a way millions of Americans don't right now," Pence said.
click on the link,then click on the Video camera icon to watch the story....
WE are winning!
Exactly.
If you aren't poisoned by the media and can actually SEE the amazing progress that has been made in Iraq and you can SEE the light at the end of the tunnel.
And it's growing ever brighter.
I've said it before on here and I'll say it again: This is going to work.
He is one of a few in Congress who has his patriotic hat on is doing good things for this Country. Love to see him run for President!
I struck up a conversation with a guy in a tavern last week... just idle chat that turned to politics. He was down on Iraq. Said he'd voted for Bush twice but didn't like how things were going in Iraq.
I told him he's just buying into the bad press. If you look at this with a little historical perspective, the war in Iraq is going, and has gone, better than just about any conflict in history. Certainly better than most of WWII. In three weeks we annihilated the enemy army. In just a few years after we brought them down, we've set up a new government, held a series of elections, prevented a civil war... all with an astoundingly low casualty rate for both our troops and the enemy. Compare this action to anything even close in history-- and it shines.
Ten or twenty years from now, people will look back on this and wonder what all the fuss was about. I think there will be a free and forward thinking and optimistic and economically booming Iraq right square in the heart of the middle east. It will have been worth it and it will be obvious to all.
It caught him by surprise because apparently he hasn't talked to anybody who challenged the media portrayal lately. He smiled and said "you know... you're right".
At least he was open to enlightenment. I met someone like that when I was on leave at home late last year - some guy who started spouting off about the "failure in Iraq" at Christmas party I was attending. I kept trying to avoid him, but he finally cornered me as one more person to listen to his drivel. He rambled for a few minutes and I finally said "You know, that's just not true."
He then started the condescending stuff so I asked where he got his information. He said, "where do you get yours?"
I replied, "I live in Iraq. I have for the last two years."
I must say I thoroughly enjoyed the look on his face and the subsequent squirming he did trying to extricate himself from the topic.
Several other guests at the party thanked me for "shutting him up."
bump.
It's kinda fun to watch the look on their faces - isn't it?
Heck yeah it is. I like to let 'em spew for a bit before I let on. It really shows them for the a**es thy are.
I've done it to troll-types on here before, too. Most of the time, someone else "outs" me. Usually, the troll just scurries away and I don't hear from them again. The real stupid ones try to save face, but I don't budge an inch on 'em. ;-)
How have you been? Did you go through an adjustment phase when you got back to the U.S. for good? A lot of people are teling me it's kind of hard at first.
[snort]
Classic. He wasn't expecting *that* answer. :-)
SEMPER FI
But I have the honor of working in support of the good guys.
Along with Qatar, Kuwait and possibly others. All will be testiment to other arab/muslim nations that you don't have to live in 700 year old conditions because if your religion.
I'm still here in the sandbox. I've been here so long, I get the urge to shoot off machine guns when someone gets married. I've been here so long, I think 110 degrees is comfortable. I've been here I don't even notice a fine layer of dust on furniture but when I was at home, it would have driven me up a wall. ;-)
(Unless you are allergic to sand.)
Can anyone verify if this is going on:
A friend's son recently returned from Iraq and this young man's (age 23) life will never be the same again. He lives in fear. He doesn't sleep. He doesn't eat. He said that when he was in Iraq, whenever the US soldiers killed someone, they had to take the dead person's picture and write a report as to how, when, when, where and why that person was killed. This is so bad of the US Goverment to insist that our solldiers do this. He said that the very first time that he killed another human being, he couldn't sleep for 3 days. He said that the American soldiers are all living in fear in Iraq because they never know who was going to kill them and when. He saw children kill American soldiers, he saw women (young and old) kill American soldiers, he said that death was all around them and that they (soldiers) were just waiting for "their bullet". I think that this war (if we can call it that) is much worse than the so-called war in VietNam. What are your views?
'pita
The son of a friend of mine is over there right now helping train Iraqi intelligence forces. He's career Army and says you'll never hear about what he's doing and the progress they've made.
It was the same way in VN. You had to watch everyone.
If your friends son has been discharged, he should go to the VA for help. If he is active duty, he should go to a chaplin who will get him help.
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