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Amplifying the Marne Success Story
Sunday, 16 December 2007
We are making great progress over here. Candidly, because stories from Iraq are dropping off the news, you wouldn’t know it. And the stories are dropping because of the progress we are making.
Every day I visit the Soldiers and walk the streets of Iraq. And when I talk to Iraqis, we are no longer having conversations about security, but how to get water and electricity to their communities. We talk about staffing clinics with doctors, and ensuring the schools have enough teachers. Our Soldiers are helping the Iraqis open shops, dig wells, and connect the local governance with the provincial government. We aren’t talking about attacks, or ensuring the people feel safe.
Last week the Division suffered zero casualties – none of our Soldiers were wounded and we suffered no losses. And earlier this week we had a 48-hour period in which there were no improvised explosive devices – none.
But all of this progress doesn’t mean anything if the American people don’t know about it. Right now we are coaching Soldiers across the Division in public affairs because we are all public affairs officers. We are all responsible for spreading the word about our Soldiers’ magnificent success – Soldiers, Family members, and the greater community that supports us.
We are truly at a pivotal point in American history – in the future Iraq will be at peace with its neighbors and an ally in the War on Terror, with a representative government that respects the human rights of all Iraqis, and security forces sufficient to maintain domestic order and to deny Iraq as a safe haven for terrorists.
Together – Iraqis and Coalition Forces alike – we are working in this direction, but it is our responsibility, collectively, to tell this story. The folks who resource this war with their sons and daughters, husbands and wives, and tax dollars understand the progress we are making.
But we have to share the story.
We developed TaskForceMarne.com to let you and the world know what we are doing over here. We update it everyday with photos, videos, and interviews from the Soldiers serving on the front lines. Every day we also publish the Dog Face Daily newsletter that shows the most recent action, and we continue to send our stories back to you every week via the Frontline. We also publish the Marne Focus every two weeks for our Soldiers over here, and spread those across Iraq.
We are pushing as much information to you, so that you can push it to your hometowns. Everyone has a hometown, and if every Soldier and their Family told their story, then all of America would know the success our Soldiers are making every day. That’s the power of a free society.
Rock of the Marne!
