Common Sense Evaluation

This is the kind of story that the main stream media should be focusing on. It’s an artical about a local hero from The Pottstown Mercury, a Pennsylvania suburban news paper.

The contributions on the world stage of a Spring-Ford Area High School graduate were noted last week in a local tribute.

For those who may have missed the story, Jim Haldeman, Spring-Ford class of 1973, returned for the Friday night football game against Pottsgrove and was honored for his work as a Marine officer in Iraq.

Haldeman’s contributions were not on the battle front; they were in the rebuilding phase. He was called out of retirement from the military to build a new government for the people of Fallujah and to help restore their city. Haldeman recently completed his special assignment and returned to his home in Rhode Island.

“Basically, I ran Fallujah,” said Haldeman, the director of civil military operations center. “I was responsible for re-establishing the entire government through the democratic process. I was there to educate people about government. I worked to build a judicial system, to establish a police force, to rebuild the city and to bridge the gap between the citizens and the military.”

Fallujah was severely damaged last year during a U.S. military assault aimed at clearing the city of insurgents, Haldeman said. In addition to re-establishing a government, Haldeman worked to get Iraqi dollars for the people so their homes could be rebuilt.

Haldeman said he has seen tremendous progress in the city since arriving last February, but there is much still to be done. “The population has increased from approximately 100,000 to 200,000. Economic development is starting to occur. People are employed. Shops and services are starting to trickle in. The streets are cleaner,” he said.

“It may seem insignificant to you and I, but not too long ago I saw a shop open up over there that was selling wedding gowns,” Haldeman said. “That’s progress, seeing people who want to move back in and start a family. I was just so happy to see that people are comfortable to come back and start their lives.”

In a marked contrast to election turnouts in this country, Haldeman said 66 percent of the people recently went to the polls to vote on their constitution. On Dec. 15, they will vote on their parliament in the national election. “We expected 45 or 50,000 people to come out and vote,” Haldeman said. “But 88,000 people turned out.”

Among Haldeman’s work was talking to people about the voting process and the importance of voting. He recalled one particular day when he asked a crowd of about 200 Iraqis how many of them planned on voting,and the entire crowd responded with thunderous applause. “They were giddy with excitement,” Haldeman said. “They were clapping for themselves because they were happy they were going to vote. It was profound that they were going to partake in the democratic process.”

Though he admitted he has little background in politics — actually “none, whatsoever” — Haldeman changed the lives of tens of thousands of people in only eight months.

The rebuilding of an area of the world that has seen as much suffering and upheaval as Fallujah represents a remarkable contribution. Haldeman is a true local hero.

I don’t know if the war in Iraq is ultimately unwinnable, but what I do know makes me skeptical of those who say so.

I do know that since Vietnam, liberals have viewed every exercise of American military power (with the exception of those undertaken by President Bill Clinton) as preludes to disaster.

The very first question President Ronald Reagan was asked at his first presidential press conference concerned El Salvador. The question: Did he think it was going to turn into another Vietnam? Democrats invoked Vietnam with every other sentence during the long and nasty controversy about aiding the resistance in Nicaragua.

More recently, just days into the Afghanistan war, the New York Times ran a front-page lament calling that conflict a new “quagmire.”

Liberals seem always to believe that America will lose its wars, and when it doesn’t, that it should.

It is obviously deeply painful to contemplate the more than 2,000 American dead, and many others gravely injured in Iraq. And charities like Fisher House (www.fisherhouse.org) welcome concrete demonstrations of Americans’ concern for military families. But one does not sense that members of the military share the belief so widespread in the press and Congress that the Iraq war is going very badly and that the original decision to fight was a mistake.

One Marine, Sgt. Todd Bowers, who did two tours in Iraq, described the attitude of many press types. “They didn’t want to talk to us.” Why? I asked. “Because we were gung-ho for the mission.” Sgt. Bowers, who was saved from grievous injury when a bullet lodged in the sight of his rifle (a sight his father had purchased for him), is chary about the press.

In his first tour, he noticed that members of the press were reluctant to photograph Iraqis laughing, giving the thumbs up sign, or cheering. Yet Sgt. Bowers saw plenty that would have made fine snapshots. In Baghdad, Al Kut and Al-Nasiriyah, Sgt. Bowers reported no signs of anti-American feeling at all among Iraqis.

Fallujah, of course, was different, as the city was a hotbed of terrorism, and the battle of Fallujah was one of the fiercest engagements of the war. During the battle, Sgt. Bowers found himself sharing a ride with an embedded reporter for the Associated Press. He was asked what he thought of the destruction. Sgt. Bowers responded that it was “Incredible, overwhelming. But it definitely had to be done.”

He also stressed that because the enemy had fought so dirty, tough calls had to be made. Later, he saw himself quoted in newspapers around the country to the effect that the destruction was “overwhelming” as if he could not cope. He had also made some anodyne remarks about rebuilding the damaged areas of the city, and responded “Where to begin?” when asked about the plans. He was speaking of the water treatment plants, medical facilities, and schools American forces were about to help build, but his comments were offered as evidence of the futility of the situation—the very opposite of this eager Marine’s intent.

There was plenty of progress to report, if the press had been interested. When the battle of Fallujah was over, the Marines set up a humanitarian relief station in an abandoned amusement park. Together with Iraqis locally hired and trained for the purpose and with an assist from the Iraqi ministry of the interior, they distributed rice, flour, medical supplies, baby formula, and other necessities to thousands of Iraqis.

For six weeks, Sgt. Bowers reports, the distribution went beautifully, “like a well-oiled machine.” Not worth a story, apparently. Only when something went wrong did the press see something worth reporting. A small group of Iraqis were turned away from the food distribution point, though they had been waiting in line for hours. They were given vouchers and told they could come to the front of the line the next morning when supplies would be replenished. These few unhappy souls were then besieged by press types eager to tell their story.

At the same site, the Marines had repaired an old Ferris wheel. The motor was dead, but when two Marines pushed and pulled by hand they could get the thing turning to give rides to the children of the Iraqi employees. They did so for hours on end. A photographer from a large American media company watched impassively. “Why don’t you take a picture of this?” demanded one Marine. The photographer snorted, “That’s not my job.”

– Mona Charen is a nationally syndicated columnist