[Vacets-local-dc] Re: [vacets-gen] [What's going on in Iraq?...a must read]

[Tin Le]

On Wed, 19 May 2004, Hai Tran wrote:

> I believe the media is not very balanced and/or fair with the information disseminated to the public; here's another point of view... 
>  
> What's going on in Iraq?...a must read
 
> This is a letter from Ray Reynolds, a medic in the Iowa Army National Guard,
> serving in Iraq. He was on home leave and was shocked at what is being said
> in the media and in print about the situation in Iraq. He wrote this to his
> friends and asks that it be sent on to everyone we know in order to try and
> set things straight:

I fully agree with fair and balanced viewpoints.  That's the only way a
democracy can work.  The letter from Ray Reynolds seem to be rather biased
and....

"These types of items are generally impossible to categorize with a single
truth value because they typically contain a mixture of fact, opinion,
subjective statements, inaccuracies, and literally true but often
misleading claims."

One of the leading Internet sites that debunk Urban Legends, Snopes, has
an interesting page on "the letter", and additional link that hopefully
give a "the otherside" viewpoint to answer what Ray claimed.

http://www.orwelliantimes.com/2004/04/26.html

The following is from that web page.

------[ http://www.orwelliantimes.com/2004/04/26.html ]--------------
The email sure has a lot of the earmarkings of right-wing propoganda -- 
ignore any information which doesn't support your position, slam the 
media, misinform, make unfair attacks on the opposition and asking to 
spread the word.

This morning (Monday) I spoke with Lt. Col. Gregory O. Hapgood, the Public 
Affairs Officer for the Iowa National Guard. He told me that Sgt. Ray 
Reynolds exists. Lt. Col. Hapgood told me that he received an email this 
morning from Sgt. Reynolds which confirmed Sgt. Reynolds wrote the email. 
While we talked about the contents of the email, I did not confirm that 
every word in the email I received was written by Sgt. Reynolds. 
Nonetheless, for the most part, the email appears to be an authenticate 
communication from one of our soldiers.

Contrary to the information in the email I received, Sgt. Reynolds is not 
a medic. He does communications work. In fact, the 234th Signal 
Battalion's "mission is to provide wide area communications support in a 
theater of operations."[*] Sgt. Reynolds' civilian job is as a police 
officer.

Lt. Col. Hapgood told me these were Sgt. Reynolds' sources for the 
information in the email:

USAID Fact Sheet 
Influential Iraqis 
The Police Chief of Baghdad 
While the email appears to provide some truthful information, it is 
replete with misinformation. I don't have time to check each 
representation in the email, but here's an overview:

Over 400,000 kids have up-to-date immunizations 
This is interesting. A lot of kids have been immunized in Iraq. In fact, 
last year the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) "25 million doses of 
vaccines to Iraq to help prevent the spread of polio, tetanus, diphtheria, 
pertussis, measles, and tuberculosis -- considered the main killers of 
children in developing countries."[*] At the time, UNICEF spokesman Gordon 
Weiss explained that the children of Iraq would need several stages of 
repeated immunizations for the immunizations to be effective:

"Iraq is in a particularly delicate stage at the moment -- postwar, with a 
lot of the health system having broken down and a lot of the water systems 
having broken down, as well. So children are more than ever this year 
vulnerable to water-borne diseases. Usually you don't vaccinate just once, 
you vaccinate a number of times in order to have the vaccinations 
work."[*]

Here's what the Fact Sheet says:

"USAID has partnered with UNICEF, the World Health Organization (WHO) and 
Abt Associates to support health program in Iraq. Since the end of the 
war, USAID has vaccinated three million Iraqi children under the age of 
five, administered tetanus vaccine to more than 700,000 pregnant women, 
and by April 30, 2004 the USAID mission will have provided updated 
vaccinations to 90 percent of pregnant women and children under five years 
of age."

Hmmm. UNICEF said that 3 1/2 million Iraqi children were vaccinated last 
year. Does this mean that the vaccination program is not being pursued as 
much as last year? I don't know.

I also don't know where the 400,000 number came from. Last year, Iraq had 
approximately 4.2 million children in Iraq under the age of five. If fewer 
than 10% of young Iraqi children have up-to-date immunizations out of the 
millions who have been on an immunization schedule and are exposed, that 
would seem to be a serious failure.

That being said, hundred of thousands of immunized children has got to be 
a good thing.

The country had its first 2 billion barrel export of oil in August. 
Nonsense. First, there's nothing in the Fact Sheet about oil. Iraq is 
presently exporting approximately 1.9 million barrels of oil a day, or 
under 60 million barrels per month. And that's going to be difficult to 
maintain. You probably already know that insurgent attacks have been 
limiting the exports.[*] In August -- the supposed 2 billion barrel month 
-- Iraq was expecting to export fewer than 1.2 million barrels a day, 
about 37 million barrels for the month.[*]

Over 4.5 million people have clean drinking water for the first time
ever in Iraq. 
Here's what the Fact Sheet says:

"Iraq has 13 major wastewater facilities. Baghdad's three facilities are 
currently inoperable and comprise three quarters of the nation's sewage 
treatment capacity. Raw waste flows directly into the Tigris River. In the 
rest of the country, most wastewater treatment facilities were only partly 
operational before the conflict, and a shortage of electricity, parts, and 
chemicals has exacerbated the situation and only a few wastewater 
treatment plants are operational. Iraq's 140 major water treatment 
facilities operate at about 65 percent of the pre-war level of three 
billion liters a day."

Water does appear to be getting to a lot more people. But, apparently, at 
a price. A witness from Basra last month claimed:

"The [water] plant seems to be working well . . . This plant is up and 
going and provides water for a huge number of people. Someone is 
constructing a new plant to expand so that there is drinking water. I have 
not met anyone here yet despite the poverty who is not buying drinking 
water."[*]

The country now receives 2 times the electrical power it did before the 
war. 
Not true. According to the Fact Sheet, on March 11, 2004, power peaked at 
approximately 92% of "the pre-conflict generating level". ABC reports that 
power generation is off since last October and is averaging somewhere 
around pre-conflict generation.[*]

100% of the hospitals are open and fully staffed, compared to 35% before 
the war. 
Not true. The Fact Sheet provides no information about this. But, the 
Washington Post on March 5, 2004 reported[*]:

"Health Minister Khudair Fadhil Abbas said about 90 percent of the 
hospitals and clinics have been brought back to the same poor conditions 
as before the war but that the others will take more time to reach even 
that low level."

Here are the first few paragraphs from the article:

"The stout woman, covered from head to toe in a black abaya, shuffled into 
the crowded hospital. She went straight to the emergency room and opened 
her robe to reveal a tiny baby wrapped in fuzzy blankets. The boy had been 
born prematurely, and the family was afraid he was going to die.

Uday Abdul Ridha took a quick look and shook his head. The physician put 
his hands on the woman's shoulders in sympathy, but his words were blunt. 
"I'm sorry," he said. "We cannot help you. We don't have an incubator, and 
even if we did, we are short on oxygen. Please try another hospital."

Scenes like this one at the Pediatric Teaching Hospital in Baghdad's Iskan 
neighborhood have become common in Iraq in recent months, as the health 
care system has been hit by a critical shortage of basic medications and 
equipment. Babies die of simple infections because they can't get the 
proper antibiotics. Surgeries are delayed because there is no oxygen. And 
patients in critical condition are turned away because there isn't enough 
equipment."

Elections are taking place in every major city, and city councils are in 
place. 
False. In June, 2003, US authorities put a halt to local elections. We 
installed mayors and administrators of our choosing.[*]

Over 60,000 police are patrolling the streets. 
I don't know how many Iraqi police are on duty, given widespread 
desertions.[*] But, we know how many police are in the New York Police 
Department -- 39,110.[*] According to the 2000 Census, NY City had a 
population of more than 8 million and covered an area of 320 square 
miles.[*] According to 1993 estimates, the population of Iraq is about 
19,435,000.[*] Iraq is about the size of California, approximately 171,000 
square miles.[*]

Though New York, like any other big city, can be dangerous at times, armed 
insurgents aren't blowing people up daily. New York has about 1 police 
officer for every 205 residents. Iraq -- which does have armed insurgents 
blowing people up daily -- has about 1 police officer for every 324 
citizens.

Over 400,000 people have telephones for the first time ever. 
Not true. The Fact Sheet says that before we invaded 1.2 million Iraqis 
had "subscribed to landline telephone service." As of March 9, 2004, 
"104,680 subscribers to the Iraqi landline phone network were 
reconnected." Repairs have reconnected some form of telephone service 
between Baghdad and 20 other cities.

Girls are allowed to attend school. 
True, but not because of the invasion. Girls were allowed to attend school 
during Saddam's rule. Between 1997-2000 82% as many girls attended primary 
school as did boys. 62% as many girls attended high school as did boys, 
during the same period.[*] 

The email is not informative, but disinformation. It's propaganda. While 
he did not cite any particular rule, Lt. Col. Hapgood said that members of 
the force are not to take a politically partisan stance in any 
communications they use in which they identify themselves as members of 
the force.  Lt. Col. Hapgood, in essence, also said that it was improper 
for Sgt. Reynolds to attack Senator Kerry in his email.

Thanks to Andrew Lazarus for his comment at dailyKos[*] for some fact 
checking leads.[*]

UPDATE:  Apparently, Lt. Col. Hapgood misinformed me about Sgt. Reynolds' 
civilian job.  He's not a cop.  He's a firefighter.  This is how Sgt. 
Reynolds responds to inquiries about his message:

"I did write it and I am in Kuwait now on my way home. I wrote it while at 
home because I felt that too many people were exploiting the violence in 
Iraq to sell papers and gain votes. Sometimes the silent majority need to 
be awakened to respond to the bad things in our world. I am passionate 
about our President's decision and support this rebuilding whole 
heartedly...Yes legit..I am a fire fighter in Denison, Iowa and to verify, 
call Mike McKinnon of the Denison Iowa fire department."
 
Too bad that the Sergeant's passion got ahead of his control of the facts.
 
Thanks to Snopes.com for the additional information.[*]
 

Tin Le
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