This is an e-mail message I received from U.S. Marine Corps Reserves Col. Frank X. Ryan, a resident of Cornwall, Lebanon County, PA, who was called up from retirement (after 32 years of service in active and reserve units) to serve as deputy chief of the Multi-National Force-Iraq. Ryan holds a senior position that organizes the planning and operations efforts of the multi-national effort involving ground forces. Stationed in Baghdad, part of his duties include traveling where needed in Iraq. Ryan provides a first-person look at what it’s like to live in such an historic land in the cradle of civilization still dealing with violence, but with the hope of a democratic future. He’s a businessman and a strong and faithful Catholic. He writes to me (and several others) when he can and sends a photo or two when I ask him. Here’s his latest message:
It’s now been over five months since I arrived in Iraq and the time is flying by. “The days are long and the weeks are short” is a motto we all live by. Days are averaging 18-20 hours per day, seven days per week, but it’s worth it.
When I visited the Combat Support Hospital (CSH) earlier this month and saw a soldier (Eliot), a Marine (Brandon) and a Corpsman (Justin) lying there, I was invigorated to keep working to support them. As they laid there with their injuries, all they spoke about was their friends and families and how much they loved them. Their families include their military families because over here we are all brothers and sisters united for the common good. I wish you could see the heroism in their eyes and the pride they have knowing that you love them so much. Thank you for your help. Thank you for all that you have done for us. As Eliot, Brandon and Justin have not let you down, none of us will either.
I am getting a great number for e-mails from all of my friends. Thanks so much for thinking of me and our servicemen and women. A recurring theme that I read about in the e-mails is the constant danger in Iraq and the car bombings.
Being in Iraq, we have a different perspective that I wanted to share with you. The real Iraq is about real people successfully struggling to rebuild their lives and their families after so many decades of oppression. It’s really not about car bombings. Many of the car bombs (we call them VBIEDs — you know you have to have an acronym for everything), are in Baghdad, but they are not what Iraq is really about.
Let me give you some specifics that might make it easier to see. Did you know that 10 of the 17 Iraqi provinces are safer than most large cities? A great deal of Iraq is very stable and capable of self-governance. Three of the remaining seven provinces are relatively safe. Four of the provinces are difficult and quite understandably consume much of what you hear about at home.
Did you know that some of the most fertile lands in the world are between the Tigris and the Euphrates Rivers? Beautiful farm land that is as arable today as it was during the time of our Lord. The dates are some of the best in the world. The sulfur industry is substantial. The Iraqi people are very industrious.
I heard something last week that made me understand the problem here a little better. One of the Iraqis I deal with told me that he was very sad for Americans with all the child abductions and the murders that it must be very hard to be in Iraq when are families are so unsafe at home. I asked him where he got that idea and he said from watching the news. We talked about it for a while and I convinced him that America was much more than what he thought he knew.
Now, some will assume from this that I think the news is biased. Nothing could be further from the truth. News is news because it is unusual. It’s newsworthy because it is a departure from what you normally see and hear. Imagine a news story that goes something like this: “For 280 million Americans today, everything was as expected.” That’s not what some would call newsworthy. Imagine if every one in the world perceived America by what they heard on TV just as we perceive Iraq by what we see reported. News is the departure from the norm — good or bad. It may also be about educating people, but mostly it’s about the freedom to express what you want to express. Like millions of Americans before me, we have fought for you to have that freedom. Let’s cherish that. The responsibility for understanding others belongs with each and every one of us not with the news.
If you have some time, please read up on Iraq. There are some great lessons here. The Iraqis are a very family oriented society. They have a wonderful sense of humor and most harbor no ill will towards our religion. They, in fact, loved Pope John Paul II and mourned his passing as we did. Iraqis are warm hearted and very welcoming. Yet there are some here who would like to see our mission fail. They are blowing themselves up, they are trying to kill innocent civilians, they are trying to mortar us, BUT the terrorists have not won the hearts and minds of the Iraqis — democracy and freedom have won the hearts of the Iraqis and I am proud to say that all of us here are helping them and, hopefully, ending this conflict with a stable peace that will guarantee freedom for generations to come.
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