Because They Hate Winners

Unless the winner is a socialist or terrorist.

WHY DIDN'T WE KNOW?
BECAUSE OUR MEDIA WON'T TELL US!

Instead of reflecting our love for our country, we get photos of flag burning incidents at Abu Ghraib and people throwing snowballs at the presidential motorcades.
Tragically, the lack of accentuating the positive in Iraq serves two purposes:
It is intended to undermine the world's perception of the United States thus minimizing consequent support; and it is intended to discourage American citizens.

Did you know that 47 countries' have
reestablished their embassies in Iraq ?

Did you know that the Iraqi government
currently employs 1.2 million Iraqi people?

Did you know
that 3100 schools have been renovated,
364 schools are under rehabilitation,
263 new schools are now under construction;
and 38 new schools have been completed in Iraq?

Did you know
that Iraq 's higher educational structure consists
of 20 Universities, 46 Institutes or colleges and 4 research centers, all currently operating?

Did you know
that 25 Iraq students departed for the United States in January 2005 for the re-established Fulbright program?

Did you know
that the Iraqi Navy is operational?
They have 5 - 100-foot patrol craft,
34 smaller vessels and a naval infantry regiment.

Did you know
that Iraq ' s Air Force consists of three operational squadrons,
Which includes 9 reconnaissance and 3 US C-130 transport aircraft
(under Iraqi operational control) which operate day and night,
and will soon add 16 UH-1 helicopters and 4 Bell Jet Rangers?

Did you know
that Iraq has a counter-terrorist unit and a Commando Battalion?

Did you know
that the Iraqi Police Service has over 55,000
fully trained and equipped police officers?

Did you know
that there are 5 Police Academies in Iraq
that produce over 3500 new officers every 8 weeks?

Did you know
there are more than 1100 building projects going on in Iraq ?
They include 364 schools, 67 public clinics, 15 hospitals,
83 railroad stations, 22 oil facilities, 93 water facilities
and 69 electrical facilities.

Did you know
that 96% of Iraqi children under the age of 5
have received the first 2 series of polio vaccinations?

Did you know
that 4.3 million Iraqi children were enrolled in primary school by mid October?

Did you know
that there are 1,192,000 cell phone subscribers in Iraq
and phone use has gone up 158%?

Did you know
that Iraq has an independent media that consists of
75 radio stations, 180 newspapers and 10 television stations?

Did you know
that the Baghdad Stock Exchange opened in June of 2004?

Did you know
that 2 candidates in the Iraqi presidential election had a televised debate recently?

In Case You Missed This

America Hands Over The Green Zone

BAGHDAD — The Green Zone, for nearly six years the headquarters of the American occupation of Iraq, passed from American to Iraqi control on Thursday, in a handover that was marked by two ceremonies of speeches, poems and music on a blustery cold day in Baghdad.

But we also have this:

Quietly, as the United States presidential election and its aftermath have dominated the news, America’s three broadcast network news divisions have stopped sending full-time correspondents to Iraq.
“The war has gone on longer than a lot of news organizations’ ability or appetite to cover it,” said Jane Arraf, a former Baghdad bureau chief for CNN who has remained in Iraq as a contract reporter for The Christian Science Monitor.
Joseph Angotti, a former vice president of NBC News, said he could not recall any other time when all three major broadcast networks lacked correspondents in an active war zone that involved United States forces.

The VLWM can't bring itself to declare victory.

Who Gets To Decide?

When we've won, I mean. Who gets to say it? Who needs to say it to make it true, or believable, or justified?
My guess would be the people who actually did the heavy-lifting. The men and women who got their boots muddy, their hands dirty. The ones who sacrificed everything to get where we are today.
This past November, Zombietime came up with an idea that took off like wildfire. A Declaration of Victory in Iraq, and named 22 November as V-I Day.

If you haven't bothered to read the whole post, you should; because at the bottom of that post are excerpts from some people who did the heavy lifting, who got their hands dirty and their boots bloody fighting to free 27 million people from a monster and then spent 3 more years eradicating any and all of the idiots who decided to show up and be targets.

You see, I know some of those people personally. I count them among my friends, and they in turn consider me one. That in itself is an honor I would never have expected but because they consider me a friend, and because friends help each other, I'm going to do whatever it takes to give them what they earned, what they DESERVE.

A Victory Party A Victory Celebration A Victory Parade.
An acknowledgement of their sacrifices, their efforts, their hard work.

I can do it. I've done things like this in the past. They know that and they have offered words of encouragement and support.

We have big plans. We have some great ideas and we need your help and your support.
As zombietime says though, if you don't think we've won; if you're one of those that won't admit victory no matter what, fine. Ignore us.

But if you think we have finally crossed that line; if you think our military has done what the democrats and the VLWM said could not and would not happen, then jump on board.
It's time, people. The time is now, and the place is Washington DC.
Lets thank our military for a job well done and stick it in the faces of the naysayers.

Blogs that have linked to this post:
Army Wife:Rants from Ft Livingroom (I love that title)
A Soldiers Perspective

The Left is SO blind to its own anti-US bigotry

Lanny Davis - Friend of Bill and Hillary
Lanny Davis - Staunch Leftist
Lanny Davis - Iraq Campaign Supporter

What?

That's right. Lanny Davis admits that he may have been wrong about the Iraq campaign and the fight for freedom in that country.

I remember the exact moment I had my first serious doubts about whether I was 100 percent right that the U.S. pre-emptive invasion of Iraq and the take-out of Saddam Hussein was a serious mistake.

He had believed that our containment and inspections were enough, even granting GWB the credit. He had believed, as do some conservatives, that war, and all of its expense in lives and treasure, was not worth it. He had believed that Iraqis were different....

I saw on TV in early 2005, in their first preliminary democraticelections, long lines of Iraqis waiting to vote under the hot desert sun with bombs and shrapnel exploding around them. Waiting to vote!

And then there was that indelible image - an older woman shrouded in a carpetlike cape, smiling gleefully and holding her purple finger in the air for the TV cameras, purple with ink showing that she had voted.

Smiling! In the middle of war! At U.S. troops standing nearby!

That last thought, however, shows that, the left has great trouble in believing the idea that the American military is a force for good and that our forces ARE liberators, not occupiers. The name of the operation, Iraqi Freedom, was not chosen for hyperbole.

He continues:
Is it possible, I wondered, that Iraqis truly did want democracy and freedom and the right to vote and government of the people, just as we Americans do? And were willing to fight for it, with our help?

Wouldn't that be a good thing? Even a great thing?

Maybe another democracy, however imperfect, other than Israel in the Middle East could lead to more moderation, possibly other democracies? Democracies that could serve as bulwarks against al Qaeda-type of terrorist states?

Sounds like a VERY LIBERAL idea to me. To paraphrase the blogger, Armed Liberal,"When the idea of opposing theocratic terrorism stop being a liberal idea?

And then in early 2007 came the surge, which so many of us in the antiwar left of the Democratic Party predicted would be a failure, throwing good men and women and billions of dollars after futility. We were wrong.

Surely we owe the al-Maliki government and the Shi'ite and Sunni soldiers who put their lives on the line against Shi'ite and Sunni extremists and terrorists at our behest some continuing presence and support and patience as they strive to find peace, political reconciliation - and maybe even the beginnings of a stable democracy.

I just know I can't get out of my mind that lady with the purple finger held up, smiling into the camera. If getting in was a mistake, then getting out - how and when - is not so simple as long as there is hope that she can someday live in a democratic Iraq that can help America in the war against terrorism.

Welcome to the real world, Mr. Davis.