Below is a letter from Ray Reynolds, a 37-year-old medic in the Iowa Army National Guard, serving in Iraq.  His e-mail, meant to circulate among a few Iowan friends, has now been translated into French and Spanish and turned up in mailboxes in North Dakota and Tennessee, only two months after it was originally sent.   

 

As I head off to Baghdad for the final weeks of my stay in Iraq, I wanted to say thanks to all of you who did not believe the media.  They have done a very poor job of covering everything that has happened.  I am sorry that I have not been able to visit all of you during my two week leave back home.  And just so you can rest at night knowing something is happening in Iraq that is noteworthy, I thought I would pass this on to you.  This is the list of things that have happened in Iraq lately: (Please share it with your friends and compare it to the version that your paper is producing)

 

·       Over 4.5 million people have clean drinking water for the first time ever in Iraq.

·        Over 400,000 kids have up-to-date immunizations.

·        Over 1,500 schools have been renovated and rid of the weapons stored there so education can occur.

·        The port of Uhm Qasar was renovated so grain can be off-loaded from ships faster.

·        School attendance is up 80% from levels before the war.

·        The country had its first 2 billion barrel export of oil in August.

·        The country now receives 2 times the electrical power it did before the war.

·        100 percent of the hospitals are open and fully staffed, compared to 35 percent before the war.

·        Elections are taking place in every major city, and city councils are in place.

·        Sewer and water lines are installed in every major city.

·        Over 60,000 police are patrolling the streets.

·        Over 100,000 Iraqi civil defense police are securing the country.

·        Over 80,000 Iraqi soldiers are patrolling the streets side by side with US soldiers.

·        Over 400,000 people have telephones for the first time ever.

·        Students are taught field station and hand washing techniques to prevent the spread of germs.

·        An interim constitution has been signed.

·        Girls are allowed to attend school.

·        Textbooks that don’t mention Saddam are in the schools for the first time in 30 years.

 

Don’t believe for one second that these people do not want us there.  I have met many, man people from Iraq that want us there, and in a bad way.  They say they will never see the freedoms we talk about but they hope their children will.  We are doing a good job in Iraq and I challenge anyone, anywhere to dispute me on these facts.  So if you happen to run into John Kerry, but sure to give him my email address and send him to Denison, Iowa.  This soldier will set him straight.  If you are like me and very disgusted with how this period of rebuilding has been portrayed, email this to a friend and let them know there are good things happening.

 

Ray Reynolds, SFC

Iowa Army National Guard

234^th Signal Battalion

 

 

www.TruthorFiction.com corrects some of Reynolds’ inaccuracies. (By the way, Reynolds stands by his claims and that his sources include the U.S. Agency for International Development and Iraqi officials.)

·        “Over 400,000 kids have up-to-date immunizations.” Actually, more than 3.5 million kids had up-to-date immunizations at the end of 2003!

·        “Girls are allowed to attend school for the first time ever in Iraq.” This is not true about Iraq.  Girls were allowed to attend school under Saddam Hussein, although they were not under the Taliban.

·        “Elections are taking place in every major city and city councils are in place.” Actually, the US military has appointed administrators over most of the Iraqi cities for the time being.  There were democratic elections in the Iraqi cities of Tallafar, Zumar and Al-Eyaldia.

·        “Over 1,500 schools have been renovated and rid of the weapons that were stored there so education can occur.” Actually, according the US Agency for International Development, the figure is actually 2,356 schools!

·        “Over 4.5 million people have clean drinking water for the first time ever in Iraq.” Clean water is not new to Iraq; however, “safe drinking water was not widespread in Iraq before the U.S. led coalition invaded Iraq…because of water treatment systems that were in disrepair or had been looted.”

·        “Sewer and water lines are installed in every major city.” According to TruthOrFiction.com, this assertion cannot be proven.  However, according to USAID, work is under way to provide clean water to 14.5 million Iraqis.  By September of 2003, 2,000 repairs had been made to Iraq’s 143 water networks. (Talking Points, “Important Progress in the War on Terror,” September 9, 2003, online at www.georgewbush.com)

·        “100 percent of the hospitals are open and fully staffed compared to 35 percent before the war.” This figure is correct – all 240 hospitals in Iraq and 2,400 primary health care clinics were operating in December 2003.

·        “The country now receives two times the electrical power it did before the war.” Power was restored to Iraq in October 2003, but was only 100 megawatts more than pre-war levels (4400 megawatts).  However, power levels are to reach 6000 megawatts by this summer.

·        “The country had its first 2 billion barrel export of oil in August.” This is false.  In August of 2003, Iraq was producing 500,000 barrels of oil per day.

·        “Over 60,000 police are patrolling the streets.  Over 100,000 Iraqi civil defense police are securing the country.  Over 80,000 Iraqi soldiers are patrolling the streets side by side with US soldiers.”

Here, Reynolds overstates the case.  According the State Department, the goal is to have 50,000 trained police in place by 2006.  The Civil Defense Corps (ICDC) in Iraq has about 25,000 members, and the Iraqi Army has 3,500 members, 2,000 of which are operational.

 

As far as I know, the rest of Reynold’s claims are accurate.  As with all chain e-mails, Reynolds’ is not completely accurate.  But he makes a good point – good things are happening in Iraq!  And his list is far from complete.  As Jeff Jacoby notes,

“Unemployment has been cut in half. Wages are climbing. The devastated southern marshlands are being restored. More Iraqis own cars and telephones than before Saddam was ousted. Some 2,500 schools have been rehabbed by the U.S.-headed coalition. Spending on health care has soared thirty-fold, and millions of Iraqi children have been vaccinated. Iraqi athletes, no longer terrorized by Saddam's sadistic son Uday, are training for the summer Olympics in Greece. Many who fled Iraq under Hussein, are fleeing back -- especially from Iran. The exodus of refugees that was predicted on the eve of our liberation had it exactly backward: People are fleeing into Iraq.”(Paraphrased in a speech by William J. Bennett on May 14 in Rancho Mirage, California.)

 

Under Saddam, Iraqis had no hope.  Now they have the power to shape their own country and their own futures, thanks to President Bush and our soldiers, like Ray Reynolds.  Robert Byrd feels that this war is “pointless.” True Americans, like Ray Reynolds and Nick Berg, know better.

What I think disturbs me so much about the anti-war movement is their fanaticism.  They view Bush as Hitler and America as Nazi Germany.  You see the millions of peaceniks marching in the streets, cursing Bush and our troops, and you wonder with James Lileks, “So what were all these people against, exactly?  A free press in Iraq.  Freedom to own a satellite dish.  Freedom to vote.  A new Constitution that might actually be worth the paper on which it's printed.  Oil revenues going to the people instead of Saddam, or French oligopolies.  Freedom to leave the country.  Freedom to demonstrate against the people who made it possible for you to demonstrate.  Freedom.” America is a champion of freedom.  Iraq is turning from a hellhole into a free, prosperous nation.  Get over it!