Iraq As Our Soldiers See It

While everyday we here at home are subjected to a litany of discouraging news coming out of Iraq, the personal experiences of our soldiers reflect a different and more ambiguous reality:

"Yet the Iraq of Corporal Mayer's memory is not solely a place of death and loss. It is also a place of hope. It is the hope of the town of Hit, which he saw transform from an insurgent stronghold to a place where kids played on Marine trucks. It is the hope of villagers who whispered where roadside bombs were hidden. But most of all, it is the hope he saw in a young Iraqi girl who loved pens and Oreo cookies.

Like many soldiers and marines returning from Iraq, Mayer looks at the bleak portrayal of the war at home with perplexity - if not annoyance. It is a perception gap that has put the military and media at odds, as troops complain that the media care only about death tolls, while the media counter that their job is to look at the broader picture, not through the soda straw of troops' individual experiences."

There's no doubt that many soldiers in Iraq are frustrated with the portrayal of the the war in our media. The bad news is the means by which the public has come to measure the progress in Iraq. But for each suicide bombing, there is a small success story.

"It is the simplest measure of success, but for the marine, soldier, or sailor, it may be the only measure of success. In a business where life and death rest on instinctive adherence to thoroughly ingrained lessons, accomplishment is ticked off in a list of orders followed and tasks completed. And by virtually any measure, America's servicemen and women are accomplishing the day-to-day tasks set before them."

It's easy for us on the left to deride conservative commentators for pointing to each of these small successes and complaining that the media is only interested in the bad news, and misses or skips stories on schools opening, or power being restored, or mosques being rebuilt. The derision is warranted when it's aimed at those on the right who simply want to bury the bad news and declare victory. But there can be no overestimating the importance of these successes to our soldiers in Iraq.

"But that is not the story they tell. It is more than just the dire tone of coverage - though that is part of it. It is that Iraq has touched some of these men in ways that even they have trouble explaining. This, after all, has not been a normal war. Corporals Mayer and Schuller went over not to conquer a country, but to help win its hearts and minds. In some cases, though, it won theirs."

I guess the "moral" of this story-if there is one-is that first of all, things in Iraq are more complicated then they seem to us here at home. It's natural and right for us watching and reading the news everyday to hear of suicide bombings and attacks on our soldiers in ever increasing numbers and lethality, and wonder if "progress" is actually being made. But our soldiers experience everyday a reality that involves little successes that are also themselves a measure of the progress in Iraq, and perhaps it's really not possible to know what direction Iraq is headed in without knowing both. And second, it is important to remember what these accomplishments mean to these soldiers, and how fulfilling these experiences can be for them. Our soldiers are continuing to die and be maimed in Iraq. This is a fact. But they are also working hard to make the lives of the Iraqis better. This is no less a fact, and it's just as worth remembering.