FR WAR NEWS!WAR News at Home and Abroad You'll Hear Nowhere Else!
All the News the MSM refuses to use!
Or if they do report it, without the anti-War Agenda Spin!
Posted on 06/11/2007 8:20:42 PM PDT by pissant
BOISE AND BAGHDAD -- In less than a week, all the troops for the so-called surge in Iraq will finally be in position and U.S. commanders will push hard to get results on the ground.
Some say the troop build up is already draining American military resources with moderate results.
But First Sergeant Noah Edney of Boise sees it differently.
The 36-year-old Boise High graduate is serving with the Army's Second Infantry Division in Baghdad.
"The surge from my standpoint is wildly successful," Edney told CBS 2 Eyewitness in an interview via satellite from Baghdad. "I can't speak to the grand strategy, I'm only talking about the view of a soldier on the ground. I'm just a grunt, so to speak."
But grunts like Edney, who has seen his share of combat, are the backbone of the American military effort in Afghanistan and Iraq. More than 400,000 of them have seen multiple tours of duty.
Edney is on his second tour of Iraq and we asked if he wasn't just plain tired of it all.
"Am I tired of war? Of course, everybody is." he said. But Edney points out he is where he belongs. "I've been an infantryman for 19 years. If there's a war anywhere in the world, there's only one place where an infantryman should be."
Edney says things have improved in Iraq since his first tour in 2004. He speaks of restoring electricity and water, of kids going back to school.
He knows the war is emotionally debated back home, but as they patrol 14 hours a day in 114 degree heat, Edney says he and his buddies have more pressing concerns.
"I can't speak for everybody, but the average grunt, most people in my company couldn't care less (about political infighting)," Edney explained. "Politics takes a far back seat of the bus. We'll deal with it when we get home."
Earlier this month, Gen. David Petraeus, the top U.S. military commander in Iraq, told the Associated Press it was too early to judge whether the U.S. counterinsurgency push, which required the addition of about 30,000 U.S. troops, is working.
"We haven't even started the surge, the full surge, yet so I'll answer that in September," when he is to report to Washington on the operation, the general told the AP.
"In about two weeks or so we'll have all of the forces for the surge, all the combat forces, on the ground and you're going to see the launch of a number of different operations in a number of areas to go after al-Qaida and other extremist elements," Petraeus said in an interview recently aired y on CBS' "The Early Show."
Since the troop build up began in January, the U.S. casualty rate has increased substantially.
And Defense Secretary Robert Gates said the Iraqi security forces are suffering casualties at twice the rate of U.S. forces.
"Their willingness to fight and die for their country is not in doubt," he told CBS News.
Refreshing perspective PING
Hooha! Prayers go out the each and every one.
Bears repeating...GREAT post!
Dittos
Amen! And thank God we have men and women like him fighting for our and others freedom.
Sounds like the good First Sergeant hasn't heard that dipwad Sen Reid has already said the surge has failed. I know I'm going to believe the First Sergeant.
Great post, pissant and thanks for the ping.
“We haven’t even started the surge, the full surge, yet so I’ll answer that in September,”
More good news the MSM considers not fit to print. Kudos to Sgt. Edney & his Company.
Now that's what you call a man.
Thanks for posting this.
Amen.
Yep...sooo refreshing!
“I can’t speak for everybody, but the average grunt, most people in my company couldn’t care less (about political infighting),” Edney explained. “Politics takes a far back seat of the bus. We’ll deal with it when we get home.”
I hope he means that the way i hope he means it.
Some say the troop build up is already draining American military resources with moderate results.
Edney is on his second tour of Iraq and we asked if he wasn't just plain tired of it all.
God bless our troops.
Sure sounds like it. All he needs is a skirt and a sassy heaircut.
FR WAR NEWS! Rumor and innuendo is not news. Who are these "Some"? Democrat Politicans and their PR people in DC?
Pretty much. And the defeatist freepers.
God bless you 1SGT. You are in my prayers.
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