More Than A 'Bit' of Good News!

[Annie]

What a great idea! (I found the link at Instapundit.) Funny how those that have been there see things vastly different than the MSM which is just happy to post a headline: 160 killed in car blasts...

http://tampatrib.com/opinion/MGBTI7TLADE.html

Voices From The Front, In the Words of Maj. Bill Cowling
By ROSEMAEY GOUDREAU [email protected]
Published: Sep 6, 2005

We regularly publish opinions from people who have something to say about the war in Iraq and Afghanistan. Besides our own editorials, we open our pages to syndicated columnists, letter writers and people with expertise. Today, we are starting a weekly feature that deliberately seeks out the voices of our military on the front lines.

U.S. Central Command at Tampa’s MacDill Air Force Base has agreed to arrange interviews with troops deployed across the globe. We had hoped to get their stories in writing, but we learned we’d have better success if we talked to them instead.

No conditions have been made or requested. We will ask to speak to military members serving in a variety of roles and regions. We would be surprised to be connected with soldiers who disagree with their mission. Still, we trust that our military men and women will be as candid as possible in describing their triumphs, their frustrations and their sense of the progress being made.

It is said that the costs of this war are being borne by a small group of Americans. We believe those people have a unique perspective that should be heard.

Today’s interview was conducted by Joe Guidry, deputy editor of the Tribune’s editorial board.

Maj. Bill Cowling is a liaison officer for the Army Corps of Engineers in Mosul, Iraq, where he coordinates reconstruction projects. The 36-year-old Army reservist left his job as a high school principal in Blue Springs, Mo., for a one-year assignment in Iraq and has been there three months. Wife Tina and their "precious treasures" — 7-year-old son Dylan and 3-year-old daughter Kylee — await his return.

Here's what he would like Americans to know:

ON THE IRAQIS:

"The Iraqi people are very motivated to improve things for themselves — at least the ones I'm around. There's Iraqi police, Iraqi army soldiers, firefighters, security forces — to me, they are the true heroes. They go out every day ... they're targets, they go to work every day. They're amazing people.

"I look back to where we were a couple of hundred years ago, writing the Constitution. Maybe it's a little bit like that. ... So for me to be able to be here and be part of the process in my own very, very small way ... I'm proud to do so.

ON RECONSTRUCTION:

"The Iraqis are doing reconstruction; Bill Cowling has little to do with it. The building of schools and clinics and courthouses and police stations and fire stations and municipal buildings, that's what really going to reinforce that this government is growing in strength and is a valid government.

"The Iraqi government officials are just now getting down to where they are coming together as a group of mixed cultural and mixed tribal heritages ... and sitting down and deciding as a whole what's best for the community. And they're picking projects and they are developing these projects. That's a big process.

"What they do in my hometown of Blue Springs, Missouri, the city planning ... they're doing all that, and they're learning from our State Department guys and our Corps of Engineers people. ... And they are going through the whole process as a group and are really making a lot of headway. ... My hat's off to them because it's hard work. ... They're not wavering. They are getting stronger and they're moving on."

ON THE INSURGENCY:

"It's getting weaker by the day. Fewer and fewer activities happen each day. It's kind of like a teeter totter .... as we reconstruct and government agencies get stronger ... we see the enemy get weaker, and fewer attacks every day."

ON HIS PERSONAL SAFETY:

"I'm surrounded by quality soldiers. They're hardened and they're good and they're professional, yet they're sensitive to the people. I've got more of a chance of getting dehydrated than anything else."

ON SUPPORT FROM HOME:

"The people from my hometown have come out of the woodwork and have been so generous to me. They send me things all the time. They ask what's it really like, and I try to convey ... that this is not an awful place. The United States Army has taken very good care of me.

"What can people do for us ... is know that this thing has got to continue and that Iraq is sending up a suitable and valid government. ... Just hang in there with us — that's what I would tell people. ... Change is not going to happen overnight. It's going to take years for this change to really take hold.

ON HIS DAILY WORK:

"I was talking to ... the guy I was replacing and I asked, is it true what I've heard, that you work 12 to 14 hours a day, six days a week? He said, "I don't know where you heard that. It's 18 hours a day, seven days a week.' ... In Task Force Freedom's area, there are almost 500 construction projects going on, and I'm supposed to know what they're all doing. And if you talk about the northern part of Iraq ... there's a couple thousand projects going on.

"We have program managers and project managers, and they have preconstruction meetings and construction meetings and they do quality control. We're really trying to give Iraqi people a real good product.

"Someday I and others hope to work ourselves out of a job here, so we're also tracking infrastructure, electricity, water, sewer systems, and we're trying to properly target resources to make any necessary repairs. ... We want to turn all this over to them someday. We work some pretty long days."

ON IRAQIS' QUALITY OF LIFE:

"[It's] improving every day. But I tell you that we've got a lot of work to do. Oh, my, I mean years and years and years of being totally run down, and we have to overcome that, and just a poor mind-set as well. ... So there is a lot of coaching and mentoring. ... There are some places where people are living in filth. Coming over here, I was so naive ... I come over here and see how people are living ... it's sad."

ON IRAQ'S WEATHER:

"Right now it's averaging in the upper 90s. This is northern Iraq, Mosul, and I think we're having a break in the weather. A couple of weeks ago we were averaging 115, 116, and before that, we've seen 124, 125 here. And this is Mosul. Down south — Baghdad and south of that — those guys, they've got it tough."

ON FEELING APPRECIATED:

"I was with one of the [Iraqi] government officials, and it was our second meeting and he asked me about my family and I asked about his. And, of course, I told him I missed them greatly, and he put his hand on the American flag that's on the right shoulder of my uniform and said, "Thank you for being here.' And you know, I'll always remember that. [It was like saying] "Thank you for putting your life aside, leaving home and helping me.' "

Cowling welcomes e-mail at [email protected] but can't promise a timely response. As you can see, he stays busy.

And another:

http://tampatrib.com/opinion/MGBEV22ZHDE.html

`We'd Like To Be Able To Give More'

Published: Sep 14, 2005

Sgt. 1st Class Elbert ``JR'' Jetton, 39, of Hinesville, Ga., has spent 17 years in the military and is serving his second tour in Iraq since 2003. He also served in Desert Storm. He is a field artillery meteorologist in Baghdad and works with tribal leaders to improve living conditions. He and his wife of 19 years, Laurie, and have three children: Kayla, 18, Brandon, 15, and Alyssa, 12.

Joe Guidry, deputy editor of The Tampa Tribune Editorial Board, conducted the interview.

Here's what Jetton has to say about his experience in Iraq:

ON HIS WORK IN IRAQ:

``Actually we have two missions. ... We have responsibility to provide meteorological data to all artillery, rocket and mortar fires. Also ... civil military operations. That job entails - we use the acronym SWEAT, and that stands for sewage, water, electricity, academics and trash.

... We go out and try to improve the living conditions for the local nationals. We do a lot with giving out Beanie Babies and school supplies

and stuff like that to the children. But basically we have the ability to be able to recommend projects to be funded, and then we get a chance to hire some of the local workers and get those projects accomplished, such as putting in power grids, water networks, sewage networks, that type of thing.''

ON IRAQ'S CHANGES SINCE 2003:

``When I was over here the first time, it was kind of more directed toward what you would anticipate the military does. A lot of attacks were going on at the time, but now we're at a point where security has stabilized ... we are able to focus on the outside areas besides guarding radio towers and that sort of thing.''

``Now we're able to get out there with the public and let them know we're here to help them and give them the opportunity to cooperate with us. It creates a strong bond. ... They realize we are concerned with their well-being, and in turn, they try to help give us information about the bad guys.'' ON THE INSURGENCY:

``It hasn't gone away but it's definitely diminished. A large part is we're seeing the Iraqi army being a lot more stabilized and picking up a lot of the areas we were having to be concerned with before. I know the sector that we're in had absolutely no Iraqi army in it when we got here, and now we're seeing them out manning checkpoints. They definitely contribute a lot to enabling us to focus on other areas and do missions like the team I'm on right now.''

ON IRAQI-AMERICAN RELATIONS: ``For the most part I'd say the attitude is steadily improving. The one thing I think is probably the most difficult to overcome is they don't understand why the process takes so long. ... Before we can put 100 percent of our efforts into improving the economy, we have to make sure we can guarantee the safety of coalition forces as well as local nationals. Until that's able to happen and the election process is completed, it's going to be a slow process for us being able to make things happen with the speed that they would like it to happen.''

ON FEELING APPRECIATED:

``Absolutely. As we pull up in an area, you can tell by the amount of children. They'll just swarm around the vehicles. The older people will come out. They'll try to hug us, and we've gotten to where we've picked up a few words of the Iraqi language and we understand that they thank us and feel safer in their communities now. But we still have more work to do.''

ON HIS BIGGEST CHALLENGE:

``Obviously the heat is a factor, especially with all the gear that we wear and everything like that. ... It's gotten up to 120 and ... you can go through a liter and a half of water in a half-hour.

``I think that if anything were a challenge, it would be not being able to do enough. Like with the children - we'd always like to be able to give more, like toys, soccer balls, school supplies, that sort of thing. We'd like to be able to give more to the people in order to help stand on their own a little bit better. Some of them are in pretty poor living conditions. The ones that are doing the worst, I really wish we could do more for them. But we're kind of limited with our resources and what we can do.

``What we would see within a poverty lifestyle in the United States, it's much, much worse here, and it's almost incredible that someone can survive under those type of conditions. I guess it just shows the human spirit is always able to survive.''

ON IRAQ'S POTENTIAL FOR DEMOCRACY:

``The best impact that we have will be on the children. They're going to be the wave of the future as far as ensuring that all our efforts here are going to go toward democracy. This country is pretty much deep-seated on 2,000 years of fighting and religion, and I don't think from their perspective it's going to change overnight. I don't think that's really the intent.''

ON WHAT AMERICANS SHOULD KNOW:

``I'd like them to know the American soldiers are working very hard every day, and in spite of their lives being placed in harm's way, I think there's a sense of satisfaction being on the ground helping such a large amount of people at one time. Also, any support that's coming from the United States is greatly appreciated. It sure makes an old soldier like myself feel really good to know that we're getting ... support from not ... just family members and friends, but people that we don't know who really open up their hearts.''

ON CHANGES IN THE MILITARY:

``This deployment is probably one of the most comfortable ones that I've ever been on. I was over here for Desert Shield and Desert Storm, and some of the changes we've seen as soldiers [are] we have Internet, we're able to speak to our families by e-mail, using chat. We have telephones, AT&T or different ones, the mail runs a lot more smoothly than it ever did before. So as far as what we have available to us, we're a lot better. The food in some places is incredible.''

ON WHAT HE'LL DO WHEN HE GETS HOME:

``I'm ready to go fishing! I got a big old pond behind my house that's 40 foot deep and it's fully stocked.''