# Letter from Iraq **URL:** \ **Category:** The BBQ Pit\ **Created:** [July 22, 2003, 6:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/letter-from-iraq/190203 "2003-07-22T18:36:02Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 10\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![sylphishone](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/d78d45/32.png) [@sylphishone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/sylphishone)\ **Post date:** [July 22, 2003, 6:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/letter-from-iraq/190203/1 "2003-07-22T18:36:02Z")
[http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/950194/posts](http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/950194/posts) Interesting and a bit inflammatory. Gotta love those soldiers!😃 ---
**Author:** ![Hello\_Again](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/85e7bf/32.png) [@Hello\_Again](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hello_Again)\ **Post date:** [July 22, 2003, 9:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/letter-from-iraq/190203/2 "2003-07-22T21:15:39Z")
Strikes me as a fabrication. Can’t put my finger on why. Perhaps the use of the words “old man” and “sweethearts” at the end… does anyone really talk that way? If there is any confirmation that this is an actual letter sent by an actual serviceman? ---
**Author:** ![december](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/838e76/32.png) [@december](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/december)\ **Post date:** [July 22, 2003, 9:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/letter-from-iraq/190203/3 "2003-07-22T21:36:07Z")
It’s a great letter. There’s no way to prove whether it’s fabricated; it’s just posted on a message board by an anonymous poster. A vague confirmation comes from another anonymous post farther down on that cite: > [@](#): > > This letter is very similar to letters I’ve been receiving from one of my co-workers who has been over there since February. He says, don’t believe the media, things are going fine and the people love that the US has rescued them. This comes from someone with user name **reaganrevolution**. Of course, **reaganrevolution’s** assertion could also be fabricated FAIK. The main stream media is currently reporting widespread celebrating over the deaths of Saddam’s sons, which seem to show that Saddam is less popular than we are. ---
**Author:** ![wring](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/838e76/32.png) [@wring](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wring)\ **Post date:** [July 22, 2003, 9:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/letter-from-iraq/190203/4 "2003-07-22T21:44:27Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by december \* > \*\*, which seem to show that Saddam is less popular than we are. \*\* Finally, a specific, achievable goal. ---
**Author:** ![rjung](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/45deac/32.png) [@rjung](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/rjung)\ **Post date:** [July 22, 2003, 11:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/letter-from-iraq/190203/5 "2003-07-22T23:45:32Z")
Ye gods, it’s on FreeRepublic. You might as well have linked to a letter from GOP Party Headquarters. Not saying if it’s a fake or not, but anyone using “reaganrevolution” as a handle isn’t exactly going to be viewing things through an objective lens. ---
**Author:** ![sylphishone](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/d78d45/32.png) [@sylphishone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/sylphishone)\ **Post date:** [July 23, 2003, 5:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/letter-from-iraq/190203/6 "2003-07-23T05:11:00Z")
Yeah all the other media stuff is objective. ---
**Author:** ![system](https://global.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/original/2X/e/e489c3b7d8fce19c4b355dd4fc3f88cc39c34b87.png) [@system](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/system)\ **Post date:** [July 23, 2003, 7:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/letter-from-iraq/190203/7 "2003-07-23T07:30:53Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by sylphishone \* > \*\*Yeah all the other media stuff is objective. \*\* If you are unable to distinguish between a highly ideologically skewed message board and standard quality media with actual fact checking and the like (whatever imperfections the process may have at any given moment) then you are truly a moron. As to the letter, it rather sounds like a typically Freeper racist fabrication. ---
**Author:** ![tomndebb](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/b9e5f3/32.png) [@tomndebb](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tomndebb)\ **Post date:** [July 23, 2003, 7:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/letter-from-iraq/190203/8 "2003-07-23T07:42:10Z")
This is supposed to be a veteran combat guy and he thinks a TOW would demolish a mosque? ---
**Author:** ![istara](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/e79b87/32.png) [@istara](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/istara)\ **Post date:** [July 23, 2003, 8:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/letter-from-iraq/190203/9 "2003-07-23T08:17:10Z")
> [@](#): > > \*\*\> This place has greater potential than Saudi Arabia (bunch of goat-herders \> who struck black gold) or Iran (weird dudes who can’t run a rug bazaar much less a major country). \*\* Sad bigoted fuck. But what else can you expect from a meathead who regards it as a sign of success that Iraqi youths wear wraparound sunglasses. For me, his email just corroborates the appalling arrogance we hear certain US troops accused of. He even downplays the number of his colleagues that have been killed - saying half were killed in accidents not fighting. So US soldiers usually have fatal accidents at the rate of thirty every few weeks - or maybe Iraq is rather dangerous? What a prick. ---
**Author:** ![tomndebb](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/b9e5f3/32.png) [@tomndebb](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tomndebb)\ **Post date:** [July 23, 2003, 8:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/letter-from-iraq/190203/10 "2003-07-23T08:26:13Z")
> [@](#): > > Subject: FW: Message From Iraq > > It Ain’t Necessarily So. > Date: Tue, 01 Jul 2003, 11:09:09 GMT Really? That means that the time was 2:00 p.m. in Baghdad. The Fallujah mosque _was_ blown up overnight, July 1, so it is remotely _possible_ that by 2:00 p.m. they already knew how many people had died, although “knowing” that they were building a bomb that soon, given the destruction reported to the building (next to the mosque) where it occurred seems a bit less plausible. However, > [@](#): > > \> Guess what played on the Bullshit Broadcasting System that evening? indicates that seven hours before the BBC produced its 6:00 news, the author had already seen the broadcast (and still had time to type up that whole long letter with its wide-ranging themes and personal revelations) in time to get a time-stamp of 11:09 GMT. As the letter says, “It Ain’t Necessarily So.”