WEBVTT

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Alright , brian , thank you at 6 16 and

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we're pleased to be joined this morning

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live via satellite from Iraq and Camp

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Fallujah . We have Lieutenant Colonel

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brian Salis , a senior spokesman for

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the marines in Iraq . Good morning to

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you . Uh Colonel Lieutenant Lieutenant

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Colonel Salis . Hey , good morning

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Patrick . Any great to be with you ?

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All right , well , thanks for joining

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us this morning . First of all , we

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always like to bring people up to speed .

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You're you're ahead of us over there .

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What time is it there ? Where you are

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in Iraq ? It's 1 15 in the afternoon on

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a beautiful friday . It's about 95

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degrees . Uh the lowest temperature day

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we've had since probably March and

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there's not a cloud in the sky as usual .

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That's just a little bit about , you

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know , here at home . We don't , we get

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to see what the media their covers .

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That's the one message you want people

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to know about what's happening in Iraq .

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What you do on a daily basis . Okay .

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But what we do on a daily basis is

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we're making the Iraqis able to stand

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up on their own two ft out here and two

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or three years ago , there were maybe

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300 Iraqi soldiers and all of Al Anbar

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province . I'm in the western part of

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Iraq and there were uh 30,000 ,

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specifically in Camp Fallujah here ,

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the city of Fallujah where they had

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that horrific beheading chamber where

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Al Qaeda was beheading people . There

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were only 300 policemen and

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3000 marines . Now it's split , there

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are 3000 soldiers in Fallujah and

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only 300 marines and the police are

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taking over more and more

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responsibility for themselves . Now

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there's other parts of Al Anbar that

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are very tough . But We keep growing

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the Iraqi army , there's over 15,000

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Iraqi soldiers out here patrolling the

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streets of Iraq with us with our hand

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on their shoulder as they go forward

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and defeat al Qaeda . So , Lieutenant

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Colonel , uh one of your answers in the

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information we have for you here , what

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is the hardest part of this deployment ?

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And you your answer was discerning

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partisan political attack from educated

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debate on the war . We have a

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congressman john murtha from our area

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here has been very adamant about

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bringing troops home immediately and

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leaving Iraq . What do you and the

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other men and women there feel about

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those kinds of statements uh I

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don't know uh in terms of the political

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statements uh with the news

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media and the score . So you want to

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have an educated discourse and and when

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I watch television throughout the uh

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the week , it's just hard to tell is

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are they developing an educated uh

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discourse or they're having a good

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discussion as to what America really

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wants to be to be successful ? What do

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we have to do to be successful or is it

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just uh attacking each other in order

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for political gains ? What I wanna hear

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is some good uh solid discussion about

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what we need to do to solve the problem

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out here rather than attack uh

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someone's political party or position

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and lieutenant colonel , you have some

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family here in the Altoona area and

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we'll let you introduce them and then

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say good morning to them if you like .

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Okay , sure . I'd love to say hello to

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my cousin Zane and his beautiful wife

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Sue , the venue cheese . Of course .

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There are kids that still live at home

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Gina and Mario . I spent my summers

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visiting Zain and suit when I was a kid

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life . My mother's family and my

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grandmother from the nanny glow twin

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rocks area of pennsylvania . So I grew

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up running on the slide hills and the

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mountains of pennsylvania , fishing in

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the streams there . And my cousin Zane

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was a always a great host and we just

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enjoy visiting with them . And I just

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wanted to say hello and I hope everyone

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is doing well . All right . And you

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live in Virginia now . But sometimes

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the central pennsylvania , we hope

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you're doing well to Lieutenant Colonel

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and you and all the men and women

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serving over there in Iraq . We

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appreciate what you're doing and I wish

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you continued success and safety .

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That's right . Thank you very much for

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your service . And yeah , thank you ,

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thank you very much and have a great

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day . I just wanted to take take care

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to you a few seconds delay there , as

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you can imagine being halfway around

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the world , around the world and