I found an interesting video of the war on Iraq and the postivie things that have been happening over there:

*98% of children now vaccinated against polio
*4,500 schools rebuilt or refurbished
*Over 8 million textbooks
*19,00 new members of Iraqi Special Police Force
*18,00 new Iraqi border agents-protecting the border with Syria
*33,000 new businesses
*5 million cellphone users-under Saddam most of them never even knew what a cell phone was
*25% of Iraqi parliament is made up of women
*150+ newspapers and tv shows discuss politcal events freely
*campaign posters displayed in almost every major city


Here's the video link: http://shock.military.com/Shock/vide...=125519&page=2

***** the media!


...Also thought I might add a video where US troops are interviewed and let everyone know why they do what they do. I think everybody should watch this video:

http://shock.military.com/Shock/vide...=125237&page=3

Saw that one myself on UTube... though your link doesnt work...

Its a very important point you raise, that the US Military has done allot of good in Iraq aswell.... Its not all bad... Deployment of incorrect tactics at the outset has blighted the US campaign for sure but they seem to be correcting that, and getting stuff you mention done should be part of any campaign of that nature... Tex asked for balance in the posts, well yours is certainly answering Tex's request....

__________________
"Barrel High, Powder Dry!"

"Illic est haud effrego ex Veneratio"

Yes true and people can't expect a country of 25 million to be stabilized in four years and that they've been through decades of war before us.

...The links work for me though, it might be because you have to be a member for www.military.com

Which video are you saying you saw the first one or second one posted?

Think it was the first... fyi on Iraq, in the stricter sense of things, they were not at war for decades prior to the US 03 invasion. The Iran-Iraq war finished in 80s but Saddams dictatorship prior and hence has inflicted its own brand of misery on the people...

On the issue of stabilization, its possible to stabilize Iraq in less then 4 years, but the tactical decisions of the administration were in error and placed demands on the US military that made stabilization in that timeframe impossible to acheive.... the Military coped but could not deliver a stabilized Iraq due to the errors made in the White House. Some are being corrected and tactics are moving towards a more correct approach, which will speed up the stabilization of the country. Considering the US by their own actions in the UN dont have access to some of the best peacekeepers in the world for this process (blue top peacekeeping, which US had little to no skillsets in as an Army), I will consider the stabilzation of Iraq to be one of the biggest military accomplishments of the US military since world war 2 and one of the best examples of the US Military's ability to learn adapt and overcome since Vietnam.

__________________
"Barrel High, Powder Dry!"

"Illic est haud effrego ex Veneratio"

I agree but if any democrat gets elected into office in 08 then consider Iraq a failure because of that. All the dems that go on there tours are saying they would pull the troops out within a specific timeline(not good). Again if this happens it's not our military that failed but the politcal people backhome. This election will be the first time I can vote and I will be most likely voting for former Major of NY, Rudy Giuliani. He alteast says that we can't just pull the troops out and that there is still possibility of stabilization in Iraq.

If Hilirary Clinton gets elected into office I might just move out of the country!

Fair enough lad.... as Einstein Says.... "for every action, theres an equal and opposite reaction"...

Grimm has a great Einstein quote "two things are infinite, the Universe and Stupidity, and Im not sure about the Universe!"... brilliant!!... lets hope its not relevant to the next Election results...

__________________
"Barrel High, Powder Dry!"

"Illic est haud effrego ex Veneratio"

I missed this thread completely
Sry lad .I've just been very busy .
Like exo says its info good for balance....

'
*98% of children now vaccinated against polio'
http://www.cdc.gov/mmwR/preview/mmwrhtml/mm5231a3.htm

'4,500 schools rebuilt or refurbished'
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn...112600927.html
http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/news...a54bd0165d.htm

'19,00 new members of Iraqi Special Police Force
'An American soldier trains for many years with good equipment in a more than 200-year-old military tradition. Apparently an Iraqi commando is given an AK-47, maybe a uniform, a practically useless plastic helmet and is then sent to his unit facing missions from day one. Their body armor is mostly bought with their own resources. The Americans do supply the commando division but somewhere down the chain things are lost and/or finish up on the black market. The commandos are the first to say that there is too much corruption within the Iraqi Ministry of Interior.
The U.S. trainers tried to push the unit into training regularly but the Iraqi officers don't seem to want to struggle more than they have to. The idea that "training saves lives" has not made much of an impression on the Iraqi officer's minds.
.........Not only were they not trained for the job, they didn't really seem to take it seriously enough, as I soon learned.
............After the Americans evacuated the casualties the unit seemed to relax once more. Many commandos were literally hanging out on the corners and smoking cigarettes while their comrades were still exchanging fire with an enemy close by. The extraction of the commandos was chaotic and unorganized. The American trainers just gave up screaming and tried to provide as much security as they could until U.S. tanks and gun trucks rolled in. When they saw the American armored vehicles the commandos assured themselves that their mission was over.
http://digitaljournalist.org/issue0603/dis_calaf.html

'18,00 new Iraqi border agents-protecting the border with Syria'
'The team has also teamed up with Turkish Special Forces in patrolling the border. With the Kurdish and Turkish soldiers, the Coalition border patrol numbers are less than 1,000 – a light force, but one with more “specified knowledge” than the much larger force that patrolled the border before the fall of Saddam.'
http://www4.army.mil/ocpa/read.php?story_id_key=5402

25% of Iraqi parliament is made up of women''
In the last elections, the number of women elected fell to the minimum Iraqi electoral law requires, from thirty-five percent to twenty-five percent.
............Only four women ministers remain in the thirty-seven ministries
..........The biggest party in parliament is the Shi'ite Coalition, which occupies one hundred and fifty seats. Among them there are forty women members of parliament – but not one of them has been made a minister.
........How can a woman aspire to high office if essentially her life is decided by the men in her family? It doesn't add up. Social equality is essential if you want to see women and men sharing political power."
...........Many women activists prominent in civil society, political parties or academia have been targeted and brutally killed in the conflict. Over the last two months in particular the violent campaign against women has escalated. Religious groups are trying to use the state apparatus to impose the veil on women and prevent them from wearing trousers or driving cars. Some new ministries are already saying that women who are thinking of coming to work for them should adopt the hijab.
http://www.opendemocracy.net/democra...liban_3624.jsp

'150+ newspapers and tv shows discuss politcal events freely'
With Iraq's TV menu growing increasingly sectarian, it is possible to draw a parallel wit Lebanon's highly sectarianized hodgepodge of channels--linked directly or loosely with political parties--which regularly report sect-specific news.(2) It is therefore perhaps fitting to speak of the "Lebanonozation" of Iraq'a media,(3) what with dozens of channels backed by politcal parties, such as the (Shiite) Islamic Supreme Council for Islamic Revolution in Iraq's Al Furat TV and the (Sunni) Iraqi Islamist Party's Baghdad TV.
..........As if broadcasting in Iraq is not difficult enough, Iraq’s interim Governing Council set up a Higher Media Commission in the summer of 2003 to regulate and license the burgeoning TV market. In the September of that year the commission barred Pan-Arab news channels Al Jazeera and Al Arabiya from covering the Governing Council’s activities for two weeks, claiming the networks promoted political violence and the killing of members of the council and the Coalition, and broadcast “terrorists terrorizing Iraqis.”

By July 2004, the Iraqi National Communications and Media Commission (INCMC) had been established, laying down rules and editorial standards for program content of television and radio broadcasters.
...........Al Diyar’s Al Yasiri is supportive of the commission: “We don’t have any form of censorship. At this point in time, Iraq is the freest country in the Arab world for the media.”
............A cursory glance at the backing and orientation of many channels reveals the extent to which sectarian issues are driving broadcasting, which can only exacerbate sectarian proclivities that are increasingly apparent in Iraq.

Al Salam TV relies on funding from Shiite cleric Muqtada Al Sadr, Ghadeer TV on the Higher Council of the Islamic Revolution, Al Masar TV on the Islamic Da'awa Party, and Ahlul Bayt TV (The House of the Prophet Muhammad) on the patronage of Shiite cleric Ayatollah Hadi Al Moderassi. Baghdadia TV is considered a moderate Sunni channel and Baghdad TV, run by the Iraqi Islamist Party, is known as "Baathist TV" among Shiites who criticize its pro-Sunni agenda. Afaq TV (Horizons) shows video footage in support of the Sunni Iraqi Islamic Party and Muqtada Al Sadr.

Babil TV reportedly offers programming in support of the Sunni Iraqi Front for National Dialogue, and Biladi TV runs programs in support of the United Iraqi Alliance.
............Ashur TV, which represents the Assyrian Democratic Movement, receives 50 percent of its funding from the party and the rest from supporters around the world. The Iraqi Turkoman Front funds Turkomaneli TV. Baghdad’s Shafak TV is backed by the Kurdish authorities, Kurdistan TV by the Kurdistan Democratic Party, and ATB TV is linked to the Kurdistan Communist Party. The Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK), the party of Iraqi president Jalal Talabani, operates Al Hurriyah TV and PUK TV. KurdSat TV reportedly supports the PUK.
.........These cases do not differ radically from Lebanon’s broadcasting environment. In Lebanon, the TV landscape reflects that of the sectarian political system:
http://www.tbsjournal.com/Cochrane.html

Some more balance for you.

__________________

'Never was so much owed by so many to so few.' Sir Winston Churchill.

Nearly 750,000 Iraqis have died since 2003 who might still be alive but for the US-led invasion. That is a cause for shame, not pride.

1.*98% of children now vaccinated against polio[/i]'
http://www.cdc.gov/mmwR/preview/mmwrhtml/mm5231a3.htm

Article dated August 8, 2003

2.'4,500 schools rebuilt or refurbished'
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn...112600927.html
Washington post. Leans to the left pretty hard.

http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/news...a54bd0165d.htm
2.I, personally, have never seen any partisanship in Reuters. So thier clear. However 2006 was the nastiest year in Iraq in general, especially in kiddnapping. So I don't blame parents for keeping their kids home. Do you?


3.http://digitaljournalist.org/issue0603/dis_calaf.html. Opinionated, though, might as well be true. Ill give you that one.

4.http://www4.army.mil/ocpa/read.php?story_id_key=5402
Your article is dated:IRAN-IRAQ Border (Army News Service, Nov. 12, 2003

5.http://www.opendemocracy.net/democra...liban_3624.jsp
Their homepage says it all. Check it out, nothing good at all to say about the Iraq war.
Lets check the authors section...Lets see, O look its the Anti-american billionaire George Soros. Lets see who else.....OOO Harold Pinter this guy has recently expressed sympathy for terrorists and condemned American military action in the shrillest of terms.Accrediated Supporter of the website is, Jeremy Hardie..Socialist!!! And, o yes the Ford Foundation.

6. http://www.tbsjournal.com/Cochrane.html[/url].Derr gaaa...I got nothing. Very informing though. Thanks for the link.....

Wheres your balance...?

Tell you what JB, from the 'other' thread it's clear that you're not making points for the sake of it and that your views are clear yet you're very willing to take contrary ideas on board. So as this argument was 'started' by me, and there really isn't any evidential way to end it, I propose a draw.

Unless you want a good old punch-up that is!

__________________

'Never was so much owed by so many to so few.' Sir Winston Churchill.

Nearly 750,000 Iraqis have died since 2003 who might still be alive but for the US-led invasion. That is a cause for shame, not pride.