By The River

David, I read your entry and I will take the opportunity to respond.

I am MAJ Chip Daniels and I am currently serving in Baghdad. The letter you
referenced was a mere email that I sent to my family. It certainly was not a
piece of propaganda floated to a media outlet like you suggest the Army is
doing. You are correct that many soldiers, Democrat and Republican, feel
compelled to tell their side of the story. I did not suggest that the media is
lying to the American public, nor do I believe that. What I do believe is that
our media, for the most part, has become an entertainment industry. Members of the media are under pressure to publish and broadcast what will sell. I believe my sister is right. Finding unbiased reporting is nearly
impossible today.

Allow me to offer an example. About one month ago, I hosted a reporter from a
major publication for three days. As we discussed the situation over here and I
took him around our area, I could not help but feel that he had already written
his story in his mind. He suffered from "confirmation bias" because he only
recognized the information that supported the story he wanted to write in the
first place. We were sitting in a room and talking with a mid-level official in
the Iraqi Ministry of Education. My unit had noticed that some schools which had
been closed due to a poor security situation had recently re-opened. I asked her
if that was true. She replied that ALL the schools in the district were open. I
asked her three times why the schools re-opened and she told me each time that
it was because the security situation had dramatically improved. Thousands of children were able to go back to school and yet what did the reporter, who was sitting right beside me, choose to write about? He wrote about
the fact that she did not have electricity at that time in her office. Is
constant electricity a good thing? Of course. Does it matter as much as
educating the future of this nation? No. Does the fact that thousands of kids
are back in school matter as much as the fact that a bridge was destroyed? I,
for one, believe that it absolutely does. Does it sell well when published by
the media? Of course not, and that is why I believe you won't see it printed,
not because of some conspiracy on the part of the media. It is a simple business
decision.

By the way, both the bridge bombing and the attack on Iraqi Parliament took
place in the area where my unit operates. It is early to say how these attacks
will affect the population but I do believe that parents will still send their
kids to school and go to the market. Why? Because sectarian killings are down dramatically in the area. In January, there were 53 murders in our area. That number dropped to eight in February. In March, there was one. Total numbers of "significant acts" of violence (murders, mortar attacks, IEDs, small arms
attacks, car bombs, etc.) dropped from 140 to 37 to 27, respectively.

What we saw yesterday is exactly what I expect we will see more of in the near
future. Spectacular attacks, as you call them, will keep the terrorists like Al
Qaeda in the news, which is what they want and need. Why do I think we will see
an increase in the short term? I expect an increase because the terrorists are
losing their support base day by day and they need to convince America and the
world that there is no hope for a free Iraq. It is still very early in this new
security plan, but it appears to me that the Sunnis, who have traditionally
tolerated terrorist organizations like Al Qaeda, are beginning to see that they
have been duped. Many mainstream Sunnis are turning on terrorist organizations
and denying them safe haven. I witnessed it in action myself this past week when an
Iraqi citizen approached me and the Iraqi colonel with whom I was conversing.
The man told the colonel that a man in his neighborhood was trying to recruit
young men to join an illegal militia. The Iraqi Army soldiers went with the
older man to his street where he identified the young militia recruiter right to
his face. The Iraqis detained him on the spot and took him in for questioning.
The Iraqi colonel told me yesterday that since that incident, many local
citizens have now started to "tip off" the Iraqi security forces to illegal or
terrorist activity because they trust that the Iraqi soldiers will respond. By
the way, dig deeper than the headlines and ask yourself why Al Qaeda is suddenly
targeting other Sunnis, particularly Iraqi politicians. What does it tell you
about what might be happening over here?

Now, as far as trusting US Army soldiers, I can promise you that while there are
some people here who will stop at nothing to kill us, the majority of Iraqis trust us and they do not fear us. You used
the word "love" in your response to my email when you claimed my message was a
canard. Please notice that I never claimed that they love us in that message, so
whose message is more of a canard? David, I am here on the ground everyday. I
can tell you that the majority of Iraqis wish that we did not have to be here
but they realize that if US forces were to leave in the near future, the
resulting chaos would be even more catastrophic than the current situation.

Combat is chaotic beyond belief. Trying to explain it to someone who was not
experienced it is like trying to explain sex to a virgin...much is lost in the
effort to communicate what it is like. The confusion and stress is surreal. Do
American soldiers make mistakes under such conditions? Yes, unfortunately we do,
and the cost of those mistakes can often be unbearable. I can also tell you,
though, that I have witnessed on more than one occasion the incredible discipline our soldiers possess. I have seen 19-year old men not shoot back even when being fired upon because they were afraid they would hit the wrong mistakes have been made and members of your US Army have tried to make amends as
best they can. Contrast that to Saddam's police who, after executing hundreds of
innocent people, sent a bill for the cost of the bullet to the family of the
slain.

David, you make some good points in your piece. You do seem bothered that I
would question the ability of the media to report fact and suppress bias, even
while questioning the integrity of the US Army. We could go on and on and never
agree so perhaps we should ask the American people what they think. Run a poll
asking the American public whether they think the US media or US Army is more
credible. As a man who has just been told that he will serve 15 months during
this tour instead of 12, consequently missing another Christmas with his wife
and children and several birthdays, I anxiously await the results. Then I will have a better sense as to the true state of our nation.