# A Letter From Iraq



## texasflyfisher (Jun 25, 2004)

I copied this letter from the Dolphin Talk, a little newspaper in Port O'Connor, Tx. One of their local "native sons" writes a letter to the newspaper often to keep the local folks informed. This letter is from one of our brave young service men and it states things as he sees it from the front lines. He's is there doing the work and no one knows better than these brave soldiers what "the rest of the story" really is. I thought you might find it revealing.



August 31, 2006



Hello friends and family, 



 I guess it's about time for an update. Well, I can tell you one thing, Aug proved to be a very action packed month. In the past month our Iraqi Bn changed sectors once again. However, because their new sector was on the complete opposite side of Baghdad, it required us to also move. This new sector was taking a serious toll on both their strength in numbers and moral, at that time it was the worst in Baghdad in regards to violence aimed toward all Iraqi security forces.

 Although we (My Team) were not really looking forward to relocating ourselves, we saw it as a good thing for our Iraqi Bn. We were hoping that a safer sector for them would give us more time to actually do one of the tasks we were here to do which is "train" them. Little did we know that this new sector was in fact safer for them but not safer for Coalition Forces. Ever heard of Sadr City? I'll leave it at that. In the last month or so we (My Team and the other three teams that moved with us) have seen just as much "action" as we had seen in the previous 6 months in our old sector. Mortars, IED's, snipers, VBIED's and the list goes on. 

 So, both our Iraqi counterparts and my team have made the move and things are somewhat getting back to normal, if that's even possible, when we get news that they are moving again! Yes, another move to the complete opposite side of Baghdad in which we are now. This will require us as well to pick up again and move to a new FOB. So as of right now our Iraqi counterparts have moved but we are still yet to go. I'm sure you have all been watching the news and have heard about the influx of Coalition troops that have been sent to Baghdad, right? Well, this has created a squeeze on available living space for us. As of right now we are trying to find a place to live that's close to where we need to go to see our Iraqi counterparts. We hope to make this move sooner rather than later in order to reduce the amount of time we are spending on the roads going from where we are now to where our Iraqi counterparts are living and working.

 Good news?, hmmmmmm&#8230;. Well we estimate we are less than 3 months from being back home; I guess that's good news. We are making strides in improving our Iraqi counterparts; however, I think the whole process is going much slower than anyone could ever have thought. In a nut shell we are trying to build these units from the ground up in the image of what we are accustomed to seeing in our military and that is proving to be a slow and tedious task. The Iraqi people are hard set in their ways and sometimes they fail to see the big picture, they fail to understand it's not just Technology and big guns that make a military organization successful but in fact it's the leadership ;and discipline of the soldiers. As I've mentioned before, they strongly disagree in having an NCO corp. Their Officers see it as a weakness to delegate tasks down to an NCO. Another problem we face is trying to get the officers to report to higher ups when something is wrong or if they are in need of assistance. Again in their culture it's looked upon as being weak and an ineffective leader.

 From time to time I get emails from some of you asking the same basic questions. I'll try to address a few of those below.



 "Are we making a difference, should we be there&#8230;.etc&#8230;.?" I still think we are doing the right thing here. 



"Were mistakes made in the initial assessment of what we were getting into?" Yes, I think so but unless you had a crystal ball or were talking directly to God, I don't think anyone could have or would have predicted what was really going to happen once we took on this task.



"Is it possible for Iraq to be a better place?" Well, &#8230;during the Sadam regime, it is estimated that he killed anywhere from one to six million people because they spoke out, because they wanted their voice heard. Even if we picked up and left today Iraq would be in a better situation that it was.



"How much longer are we going to be in Iraq?" I can't answer that question with certainty but it is my opinion that we will be here for years in some form of fashion. This country as a whole has had to start from ground zero and that's not something than can be done in a short period of time. 



"Is the USA a safer place today because of our involvement in Iraq?" YES, I believe 100% that it is. We have made great strides in capturing terrorist leader and crippling the world wide effects of terror cells. It's sad that many of the other countries haven't helped us more in this effort.



 Again I want to thank all of you that have sent letters, cards, packages and emails in support of not just my team, but for all American soldiers currently deployed in Iraq and Afghanistan. And regardless of what you're seeing on TV, know that good things are happening over here. Children are now going to school; the Baghdad University is now full of college students; electricity, water, sewage and the basics needed to live are being restored and made available to millions that previously had nothing. Take care and God Bless.



_CPT Moore, Brian_



CPT Moore, Brian

Shadow 5

3-8 POB SPTT BN


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## GreatWhite4591 (Sep 7, 2005)

Thank you for that post!

It sounds EXACTLY like how my son describes it.


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