Iraq Good News

[Lakeshore]

The following is an email message sent to all First Marine Air Wing and Marine Wing Support Squadron 171 from LtCol Scot S. Seitz, Commanding Officer, on Monday, December 1, 2003. It's worth reading and sharing.

Marines and Sailors,

As we approach the end of the year, I think it is important to share a few thoughts about what you've accomplished directly, in some cases, and indirectly in many others. I am speaking about what the Bush Administration and each of you has contributed by wearing the uniform, because the fact that you wear the uniform contributes 100% to
the capability of the nation to send a few onto the field to execute national policy. As you read about these achievements you are a part of, I would call your attention to two things:

1. This is good news that hasn't been fit to print or report on TV.
2. It is much easier to point out the errors a man makes when he makes
the tough decisions, rarely is the positive as aggressively pursued.

Since President Bush declared an end to major combat on May 1. . .
. . . the first battalion of the new Iraqi Army has graduated and is on active duty.
. . . over 60,000 Iraqis now provide security to their fellow citizens.
. . . nearly all of Iraq's 400 courts are functioning.
. . . the Iraqi judiciary is fully independent.
. . . on Monday, October 6, power generation hit 4,518 megawatts-exceeding the prewar average.
. . . all 22 universities and 43 technical institutes and colleges are open, as are nearly
all primary and secondary schools.
. . . by October 1, Coalition forces had rehab-ed over 1,500 schools-500 more than
scheduled.
. . . teachers earn from 12 to 25 times their former salaries.
. . . all 240 hospitals and more than 1,200 clinics are open.
. . . doctors salaries are at least eight times what they were under Saddam.
. . pharmaceutical distribution has gone from essentially nothing to 700 tons in May to a
current total of 12,000 tons.
. . . the Coalition has helped administer over 22 million vaccinations to Iraq's children.
. . . a Coalition program has cleared over 14,000 kilometers of Iraq's 27,000 kilometers
of weed-choked canals which now irrigate tens of thousands of farms. This project

has created jobs for more than 100,000 Iraqi men and women.
. . we have restored over three-quarters of prewar telephone services and over
two-thirds of the potable water production.

. . . there are 4,900 full-service telephone connections. We expect 50,000 by year-end.
. . . the wheels of commerce are turning. From bicycles to satellite dishes to cars and
trucks, businesses are coming to life in all major cities and towns.
. . . 95 percent of all prewar bank customers have service and first-time customers are
opening accounts daily.
. . Iraqi banks are making loans to finance businesses.
. . the central bank is fully independent.
. . . Iraq has one of the world's most growth-oriented investment and banking laws.
. . . Iraq has a single, unified currency for the first time in 15 years.
. . satellite TV dishes are legal.
. . . foreign journalists aren't on 10-day visas paying mandatory and extortionate fees to
the Ministry of Information for "minders" and other government spies.
. . . there is no Ministry of Information.
. . . there are more than 170 newspapers.
. . you can buy satellite dishes on what seems like every street corner.
. . . foreign journalists (and everyone else) are free to come and go.
. . . a nation that had not one single element-legislative, judicial or executive-of a
representative government, now does.
. . . in Baghdad alone, residents have selected 88 advisory councils. Baghdad's first
democratic transfer of power in 35 years happened when the city council elected

its new chairman
. . . today in Iraq, chambers of commerce, business, school and professional
organizations are electing their leaders all over the country.
. . . 25 ministers, selected by the most representative governing body in Iraq's history,
run the day-to-day business of government.
. . . the Iraqi government regularly participates in international events. Since July, the
Iraqi government has been represented in over two dozen international meetings,
including those of the UN General Assembly, the Arab League, the World Bank and

IMF and, today, the Islamic Conference Summit.


The Ministry of Foreign Affairs today announced that it is reopening over 30 Iraqi
embassies around the world.
. . . Shia religious festivals that were all but banned, aren't.
. . . for the first time in 35 years, in Karbala thousands of Shiites celebrate the pilgrimage
of the 12th Imam.
. . . the Coalition has completed over 13,000 reconstruction projects, large and small, as
part of a strategic plan for the reconstruction of Iraq.
. . . Uday and Qusay are dead-and no longer feeding innocent Iraqis to the zoo lions,
raping the young daughters of local leaders to force cooperation, torturing Iraq's

soccer players for losing games, or murdering critics.
. . . children aren't imprisoned or murdered when their parents disagree with the
government
. . . political opponents aren't imprisoned, tortured, executed, maimed, or are forced to
watch their families die for disagreeing with Saddam.
. . . millions of longsuffering Iraqis no longer live in perpetual terror.
. . . Saudis will hold municipal elections.
. . . Qatar is reforming education to give more choices to parents.
. . . Jordan is accelerating market economic reforms.
. . . the Nobel Peace Prize was awarded for the first time to an Iranian-a Muslim woman
who speaks out with courage for human rights, for democracy and for peace.
. . Saddam is gone.
. . . Iraq is free.
. . . President Bush has not faltered or failed.
. . . Yet, little or none of this information has been published by the Press corps that
prides itself on bringing you all the news that's important.

Iraq under US-led control has come further in six months than Germany did in seven
years or Japan did in nine years following WWII.
Military deaths from fanatic Nazi's and Japanese numbered in the thousands and

continued for over three years after WWII victory was declared.

It took the US over four months to clear away the twin tower debris, let alone attempt to
build something else in its place.

Now, take into account that almost every Democrat leader in the House and Senate has
fought President Bush on every aspect of his handling of this country's war and the
post-war reconstruction, and that they continue to claim on a daily basis on national TV
that this conflict has been a failure.

Taking everything into consideration, event the unfortunate loss of our brothers and
sisters in this conflict, do you think anyone else in the world could have accomplished as
much as the United States and the Bush administration in so short a period of time?

These are things worth writing about. Get the word out. Write to someone you think may

be able to influence our Congress or the press to tell the story.

Above all, be proud that you are a part of this historical precedent.

God bless you all. Have a great Holiday.

Semper Fidelis,

LtCol Scot S Seitz

[Cherry Kelly]

Thank you for posting this.

After talking to one of the son's friends (who just got back from there) sounds close to what he was saying with regards to Iraqi's now taking over a lot of the MP type duties. Didn't get a chance to talk a lot with him when he called. Will visit with him when I return from vacation.

[diep]

I wish such 'good news reports' would be only written by Iraqi people who lived in Iraq last 20 years, and not by some Marine.

Spend some time looking it up in archive material, but the statement: "military deaths from fanatic Nazi's and Japanese numbered in the thousands and continued for over three years after WWII victory was declared" is just not truth. There are zero registrated military deaths in Germany post WW2. Don't know about Japan.

Of course the 'fact sheets' have been wrong all along. What's new?

[Cherry Kelly]

diep -- strange you say there werenone in Germany post WWII -- my uncle was posted in Germany - post WWII (less than a year after end of the war) - he lost three from his group - shot down on patrol in small village area north of Berlin. He was injured as well and almost died. Wonder how they ARE listed - might be interesting to look it up.

- - -
Noticed they were protesting to get elections and turn over of government -- now that is something one would NEVER have seen on the streets if Saddam were still running theplace.