This is an email I recieved and just
thought I'd share it.

I hope all of you can take the time to read this. This is from one of our Chaplains, Gary Selof. He writes us periodically to keep us updataed. We must not lose our resolve to stay the course. I think one of the worst things this country could do is to let the soldiers know that support for the war is waning. God Bless America.

He Writes

Greetings from Iraq. I hope and pray this note finds you all doing well and that God is blessing you abundantly. I heard on the news today that President Bush is going to speak to the United States about the war in Iraq. In recent e-mail traffic with some folks back home I am told that the support for the war is waning in the United States. It is not surprising to hear that as we are a nation used to instant gratification and we expected better results after three years of war. However, I remember when we began this war that the President and his advisors said repeatedly that there will not be change overnight and that we have to expect a long haul in this transition in Iraq. Unfortunately he was correct and this process is taking a lot longer than any of us had anticipated. It is hard to believe that the strongest nation on earth with the largest military can be held at bay by a bunch of cowardly people who will not show their face and instead fight by putting bombs on the roadside and blow them up when the United States vehicles pass by. It seems to many that it would be easy to just blow them up and be done with it, but it is not that easy. We could simply drop a bunch of bombs on the city of Ramadi and decimate the place, and that will certainly cease the insurgency, but it will only make us out to be murderers in the eyes of the people of Iraq. The challenge for this war comes in the fact that we are not fighting conventional war as was fought in WWI or WWII. We do not have two sides with different uniformed soldiers on each side shooting at each other. The insurgents hide in the cities with civilians and they all look the same. Our soldiers cannot tell who the bad guy is by looking at people, so it is difficult to know who to hunt down and who we should leave alone. In effect then we are hunting people, but more importantly we are hunting the weapons they use. For example, many of our soldiers have been cache hunting missions and have discovered many caches of weapons hidden in the desert. (We have had less rocket attacks on the base, I believe due t o the fact that they have found so many caches of weapons). We also have specialized equipment to hunt IED�s planted by insurgents which, when found can be detonated or defused so as not to cause any harm.

The question becomes are we winning? I have to admit that sometimes it does not feel like it. I am sick of hearing of death, I am sick of soldiers and marines dying on the streets of Iraq because some bomb was hidden in the ground or some insane person decided to run his explosive laden automobile into one of our convoys. I am tired of looking at news on the Internet and seeing only the bad accounts of what is happening over here. Do the soldiers want to go home, you bet we do, however, we also believe we are making a difference here and that we are helping a people who have never had the freedom we have become free. That is important.

I was talking with our interpreter the other day (for security reasons, I will not tell you his name) but he is an Iraqi citizen. He asked me how I thought things were going in Iraq and my answer was, �I don�t know.� He told me to think about a few months ago when all we heard on the news was the difficulties in Mosul. We heard about all the bombs, all the killings, all the violence in Mosul. What has happened to Mosul? We do not hear much about Mosul anymore. Well, he reminded me that Mosul is pretty quiet now because of what the Coalition forces and more importantly the newly trained Iraqi forces have done in that area. There has been enough progress against the insurgents in Mosul that we do not hear any more about that city. Last summer we heard so much about Fallujah, we do not hear much about Fallujah anymore. Now all we hear about is Ramadi which is the hot spot in Iraq right now. I believe the spike in deaths in Ramadi is due to the fact that the insurgents are runni ng scared. They know they are losing ground and they are doing all they can to run us down, frighten us into giving up and causing the American people to lose hope. They are smart people, they see American television and they know what will get reported on the news. They also understand democracy and know that if they can cause enough commotion in Ramadi it will get reported on the news and public opinion will be swayed by what they see.

It is said that it is always darkest before dawn. I cannot attest to that because I try to not be up at that time of the day, but the illustration I think is apt for this situation. Are we winning this war against the insurgents? I think so. In my opinion if the United States pulled its forces out of Iraq now it would be the worst thing we could do to the people of Iraq. We are the stabilizing force that is holding this country together right now and we cannot quit because we are tired. We must keep on keeping on until the job is done. When will that be? I wish I knew. I wish it were next week and I could go home to my family, but that is not going to be the case. I only ask that you keep praying for the military personal that are over here in the midst of it and keep supporting us as you have. Every day I am thankful for the support and prayers of the American people on behalf of the soldiers, marines, sailors and airmen involved in this conflict. Every person over here is grateful for your support. Thank you. The soldiers of the 224th continue to do a bang up job in Iraq. I look at these young soldiers and am amazed at how they continue to do the jobs they do. They are an inspiration to me. They go on mission after mission outside the protected base and perform their jobs as professional soldiers. I am proud of them. When you hear the president speak tonight on television say a pray for him, even if you are not a republican. I would not want to be in his shoes for all the money in the world right now. He has a tough job.

CH Gary Selof HHC 224th ENG BN APO AE 09396

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