Local Marine Bears Good News from Iraq

We reported on this family man and courageous Marine last November here.

From the Post Dispatch:

A Marine from O'Fallon, Mo., insists that there's good news out of Iraq.

Well, part of Iraq.

The word comes from Lt. Col. Chris Lozano, 47, a Marine reservist who got back last month from a seven-month stint in Fallujah, in al-Anbar province.

Fallujah has generated a bunch of bad news. Twice in 2004, battles for that city led to lots of casualties, rubble and downbeat headlines.

And now? "I saw the re-emergence of a local economy," Lozano says. "Markets. Trucks with goods, coming in and out. Construction — houses, shops and so forth.

"Now, Fallujah is largely under the control of the Iraqi army. And finally, they're fighting."

But Lozano says that when he picks up the Post-Dispatch, or turns on CNN, or calls up CNN.com, "I don't see it being told much. A suicide bombing in Ramadi is reported accurately enough — but you don't see the overall context. The media are very focused on the immediate battle, and not on The Long War."

The media generally, along with most leftist politicians, are focused on surrender...

"There's a reason we call it 'The Long War,'" he says. "It could last 50 to 100 years. It's the war against radical Islamic fascism."

Something again, that many don't seem to realize...

"The frustrating thing about the media — and the general public — is that they have a short attention span and are unwilling to understand the true nature of the threat."

As long as they imbibe from the poisoned waters (which is claimed to be "news") of the "mainstream" media, they'll not understand it until it is too late...

When 9/11 hit, Lozano set aside his law practice and donned his Marine uniform for 28 straight months, including stints in Afghanistan and then Iraq.

Lozano's latest tour in Iraq bumped his time in uniform to 35 months, just shy of three years. His first absence killed his modestly successful legal practice. After a posting here as an executive with an information technology company, he went back in uniform, and back to Iraq.

Now, in O'Fallon, he runs his own management consulting company, C4I Systems Inc. And if wife Nancy has her way, somebody else will carry on Lozano's Long War.

The colonel says with a grin, "She says I'm grounded from war."

We rejoice with his family and friends in having him back safely! May God continue to bless him and family!