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November 30, 2011, 5:53 PM
U.S. Military Press Office Iraq, Signing Off
By STEPHEN FARRELL
BAGHDAD – With a short e-mail, the United States military press office in Baghdad press released itself out of existence. The announcement on Wednesday was a model of brevity. Of clarity, not so much.
The e-mailed statement was the latest milestone in the accelerating drawdown of American troops in Iraq. It read simply:
“Good Morning;
This email is to inform you that as of today, 30 Nov. the J9 USF-I Media Operations Center will cease operations. Due to our reposture efforts the press desk function will no longer provide releases or
responses.
“For RTQ’s please contact the Embassy Public Affairs section.”
RTQ’s? Even some who made it past “J9″ (the military section which deals with political, economic and communications activities) and “reposture efforts” (American troop withdrawal) were stumped by this abbreviation.
It fell to Col. Barry Johnson, a spokesman for the American forces in Iraq, to provide the missing R to the Q.
“Responses to Queries,” he responded.
lor=red]]It signifies the end of an office which has existed in various forms since 2003, initially in Qatar and Kuwait before the invasion, and then in Iraq itself. Its first Baghdad home was a Saddam-era convention center that became an early hub of the Green Zone, later moving to a prefabricated cluster of buildings and then into two American Embassy compounds.
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U.S. Military Press Office Iraq, Signing Off
By STEPHEN FARRELL
BAGHDAD – With a short e-mail, the United States military press office in Baghdad press released itself out of existence. The announcement on Wednesday was a model of brevity. Of clarity, not so much.
The e-mailed statement was the latest milestone in the accelerating drawdown of American troops in Iraq. It read simply:
“Good Morning;
This email is to inform you that as of today, 30 Nov. the J9 USF-I Media Operations Center will cease operations. Due to our reposture efforts the press desk function will no longer provide releases or
responses.
“For RTQ’s please contact the Embassy Public Affairs section.”
RTQ’s? Even some who made it past “J9″ (the military section which deals with political, economic and communications activities) and “reposture efforts” (American troop withdrawal) were stumped by this abbreviation.
It fell to Col. Barry Johnson, a spokesman for the American forces in Iraq, to provide the missing R to the Q.
“Responses to Queries,” he responded.
lor=red]]It signifies the end of an office which has existed in various forms since 2003, initially in Qatar and Kuwait before the invasion, and then in Iraq itself. Its first Baghdad home was a Saddam-era convention center that became an early hub of the Green Zone, later moving to a prefabricated cluster of buildings and then into two American Embassy compounds.
[b][/size]
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