Pentagon Press Releases
Producer Mary Walsh receives her fair share of press releases from the Pentagon. But as more troops head to Iraq, she says some releases may not be telling the full story.
So the American military works hard to promote "good news" stories. Public Affairs officers all over Iraq spend their days trying to get the word out about what's going on in their area. They write press releases and email them – with attached photographs, usually – to reporters who cover the military.
This morning my inbox had 17 press releases from "MNC-I Victory Main" – that's military-speak for Multi-National Corps – Iraq, Camp Victory. One release reported the deaths of two soldiers in Al Anbar province, an area in the West infested with insurgents.
Five others detailed birthday celebrations earlier this week for Martin Luther King. There was a pre-dawn 2-mile "fun run" at Camp Liberty, with hats and t-shirts awarded to male and female first place finishers. At Camp Taji, hundreds of soldiers gathered to watch King's "I Have a Dream" address. Then unit commanders gave speeches about King's struggle for freedom and how that applies to the fight against insurgents in Iraq.
At Forward Operating Base Loyalty in eastern Baghdad, a joint patrol of Iraqi and U.S. soldiers found a cache of weapons – artillery rounds, mortar shells and blasting caps. And in western Baghdad there was a "lucky break for local man" when a patrol of Iraqi soldiers stumbled across a man who had been kidnapped and freed him.
Public Affairs at a place called Forward Operating Base Q-West told of an Air Force detachment that has flown more than 1,100 pallets of water and other supplies to American bases in northern Iraq in four months. That has taken 333 supply trucks off the road and kept 778 soldiers out of harm's way, according to the release. The mission is to "mitigate convoys," the commander is quoted as saying. "The Army traditionally moves cargo by ground and that puts a lot of soldiers' lives in danger."
Yet another press release was about those very soldiers, the ones who protect the convoys. It didn't describe the workaday world of prosecuting the Iraq war, but made official something that has been known in Minnesota, New Jersey and four other states since late last week – 5,000 National Guard soldiers who were supposed to come home in March will have to stay until summer.
"It's hard on families," the combat team's command sergeant major admitted. "But, we've made it this far, we can make it through this."
The press release didn't mention disappointed, even heartbroken families, who said things like "it sucks," to newspaper and television reporters in their home states. The military release didn't mention weddings that now must be postponed, family vacations that have to be rescheduled or that Amy Simer will celebrate her first birthday without her dad, the same dad who was also in Iraq when she was born. Nor did it report Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty's reaction to news of the Guard's extention: "I am extremely disappointed and frustrated."
You won't read any of that kind of "bad news" in the military's official press releases. But if you read them carefully, you will come to understand that the surge of American troops to Iraq has already begun. The soldiers who were supposed to go home, but are now staying in the war zone are the first part of that surge.
The National Guard soldiers who are staying an extra four months are in the 1st Brigade Combat Team, 34th Division. They've seen a lot of action and you can see some of it – put together by their own public affairs team – on their excellent website.