U.S. unaware of realities of Iraq war, vet says

Note; three significant issues here, well more, but these are the ones I noted.

1) remember the poll just before election which media used to attempt to portray the troops were okay with the direction in Iraq? That poll more portrayed Officer's responses than enlisted troops. Try the poll mentioned by Specialist E-4 Patrick Resta in this article that shows 60% of soldiers in Iraq do not approve of the war.

2) Media coverage fails to present realities of Iraq or the ground truth which continues to quell any public citizen concerns on behalf of our troops and reduces the support the troops rhetoric to magnetic yellow ribbons (my opinion).

3) Iraqis are Not pleased with the American presence despite news reporting to the contrary.

U.S. unaware of realities of Iraq war, vet says

Critical of the U.S. media and Bush administration, a veteran of the war in Iraq spoke Thursday night about the realities of the conflict, saying that U.S. soldiers there were ill-equipped, poorly trained and largely unsupportive of the war.

Specialist E-4 Patrick Resta, who served as an Army medic in Iraq for eight months before returning to the United States in November, spoke before an audience of about 80 Brown students and local community members in Salomon 001.

Resta criticized the poor coverage of the Iraqi war by the U.S. media and said the goal of his speech and accompanying slide show was to show what it was really like in Iraq.

"One of the most important things veterans can do, like myself, is come out here and present a true picture of Iraq, because the American media isn't letting people have that true picture," he said.

Resta pointed out how poorly equipped U.S. soldiers were in Iraq. He said that of the 1,000 vehicles his brigade brought into Iraq, only about 10 to 15 percent of them were armored. In addition, of the vehicles that were armored, many of them had only a half-inch sheet of plywood or sandbags as protection.

"If you look at this fuel truck," Resta said, referring to a vehicle in a photograph, "what you see are three sandbags. That's the armor on that vehicle."

Resta said many troops, including him, took out loans to buy their own personal armor, which they either wore or used as protection in their vehicles. He said he was never trained to use the rifle he was issued and his gas mask did not fit properly.

Resta said he also wanted to dispel the notion that Iraqis were content with the U.S. presence in their country.

"First, (Iraqis) would say, they were glad that Saddam (Hussein) was gone," he said. "But they would always follow that up with, 'At least under him, we had security.' "

Resta also dismissed the idea that most of the troops in Iraq were satisfied with their situation, citing a poll in a military magazine that found that about 60 percent of soldiers in Iraq did not approve of the war. He also said soldiers were open about their disapproval of the war, and many wanted to leave

.... see rest of the article at
U.S. unaware of realities of Iraq war, vet says - Brown Daily Herald - Campus News