My favorite phrase these days............
BUSHWHACKER CAN'TS!!!!!!!!!!!!
Here's one for you..............
Marine Cpl. Isaac D. Pacheco of Northern Kentucky enlisted in the Marines on September 12, 2001, and has been serving in Iraq at the Combined Press Information Center. Recently he wrote this for his local newspaper:
"Something struck me as odd this fall as I watched a U.S. satellite news broadcast here in my Baghdad office. Something just didn't seem right. There was the usual tug-of-war between presidential candidates, a story about the Boston Red Sox and a blurb about another explosion in Iraq. The latter story showed the expected images of smoke and debris and people frantically running for cover - images that have become the accepted norm in the minds of many Americans thanks, or should I say no thanks, to the media.
"There were no smiling soldiers, no mention of rebuilding efforts, no heartwarming stories about honor and sacrifice. I could swear I've seen that 'stuff' here.
"I've become somewhat callused to this kind of seesaw reporting because every day I work with the news agencies that manufacture it. However, many
service members shake their heads in frustration each time they see their daily rebuilding efforts ignored by the media in favor of the more 'sensational' car bomb and rocket attack stories. Not to say that tragedies don't happen - Iraq is a war zone - but there is so much more happening that gets overlooked if not ignored."
Throughout Iraq the election campaign enters its penultimate week:
Leaders of Iraq's Sunni Arab minority and other skeptics say it is so dangerous in large parts of the country that it will be all but impossible to hold nationwide elections Jan. 30. Even President Bush recently conceded just 14 of Iraq's 18 provinces are ready for elections.
But on the busy second and third floors of a building inside this city's heavily fortified Green Zone, dozens of United Nations officials, Iraqi poll workers and monitoring groups--some strolling in and out wearing flak jackets and blue helmets--are hard at work to ensure the elections go on as scheduled.
Iraqi women, who due to past bloodshed constitute a clear majority of the population, are looking forward to building a better future through the democratic process. According to the latest poll conducted by Women for Women International in Baghdad, Mosul and Basra,
"94% of women surveyed want to secure legal rights for women; 84% of women want the right to vote on the final constitution; [and] nearly 80% of women believe that their participation in local and national councils should not be limited." As the report notes, "the most unexpected result of the survey is that despite increasing violence, particularly violence against women, 90.6% of Iraqi women reported that
they are hopeful about their future."
Other sections of Iraqi society are also excited about the coming election. On the streets of Baghdad, democracy makes more converts:
Just months ago, Fattahlah Ghazi al-Esmaili was penning articles in support of Iraq's Shi'ite uprising as editor for Ishriqat, a newspaper for rebel cleric Sheik Muqtada al-Sadr and his Mahdi's Army militia.
Now the 38-year-old has abandoned his Arab head scarf for a neat beige suit and is out pumping the flesh in his run for parliament at the head of a 180-candidate list representing the impoverished Shi'ites of Sadr City.
"Before, we were men of the Mahdi's Army. Now we are men of politics," says the journalist, who goes by the pen name Fattah al-Sheikh. "Yesterday, we were out on the streets. Today, we are here campaigning, and hopefully tomorrow, we'll be in the presidential palace."
Brig. Gen. Jeffery Hammond of the 1st Cavalry Division, says Sadr City is the safest place in or around Baghdad. About 18,000 people have reconstruction jobs, he says, earning about $6 a day. "Sadr City is what the future of Iraq can look like," he says.
Those who were once taking up arms are now talking democracy. 'Before, the men were buying black cloth for their (martyrs') banners. Now for the election, we are buying white cloths' for posters, says candidate Fatah al-Sheikh.
SOURCE
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------
SPIN THAT YOU NATTERING NABOBS OF NEGATIVITY!
(You know who you are)!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
