Mom in Iraq 2005-2006

I would like to take time to talk about my mother who was over in Iraq for a year from 2005-2006. She was a single parent at the time. I was a freshman at Georgia Southern and my 5 year old sister was living with her. My mom was not officially out of the army, so she occasionally went to the Army Reserves for a weekend or two during the year.

The night I found out she was going over to Iraq, I was obviously sad and probably more pissed off! I could not image them asking my mother to leave. She was also in Desert Storm, so I thought maybe that's why they asked her to leave because she had experience.

Once she came back, I was shy to ask her about what happened over there, but since I am taking a Mass Media and Politics class I thought it would be appropriate to share what really goes on during "war" time. When the news was covering the war non-stop, my mother told me they always showed the bad and never the good.

Here are a few stories from my heroic mother....

Many people are arguing that Iraq should become a better country and that the military is not doing anything about it. Well rebuilding a country does not take over night. It could take centuries. Rome was not built in a day! For example, when New Orleans and other parts of the south got hit by Katrina, it took months to clean up. Some parts still look bad and that happened in 2004.

The news obviously shows attention grabbing segments to attract the audience, so they show bombings and people dead in the middle of the road. My mom said they never showed soldiers giving civilians clean water, sugar, soap, etc. My mother told me her soldiers did this as much as they could. Her husband, Tim, would mail something to her everyday, so she shared pretty much everything with everyone. The civilians over in Iraq do not have stores like us where they can easily get these items, so when they are handed these items they think it's the most precious thing in the world.

My mother told me some of the civilians would run up to their vehicles or when their helicopters landed and greeted them eagerly. They were so happy to see them there in their country.

The news never wants to report the good, because the bad always grabs more attention. The disadvantage is not informing us the greatness that is going on over there.

The news also does not show the excitement of civilians when soldiers are there. Some people think all Iraqis hate Americans, but they are wrong. The news biases control most people's opinions about Iraq.

The media news does not show the soldiers rebuilding schools and homes either.

Lastly, I would like to talk about something that might be a sour subject, but I had to share this. My mother said people see soldiers dying on the news, but when soldiers kill women or children it is a travesty. The news make us look bad! What's wrong with this? My mother said you are taught in the military that you do not shoot at someone unless they shoot at you first. If a woman or a child has a gun and is starting to shoot you, I believe your going to shoot back to save your life. The news makes the soldiers as murders. This is so sad....

I really wish the news would cover good things going on over there because at this point people are getting crabby about us still being in Iraq.