Quick! Someone tell the American voters about this news from Iraq.
Bookworm on Jul 02 2008 at 6:21 pm | Filed under: Anti-war, Media matters
The story is amazing and the source — the normally anti-American Spiegel (a German magazine) — is equally amazing. According to this story, things in Baghdad are going really well, and the citizens have a renewed sense of well-being and purpose:
There is an unexpected air of normalcy prevailing in Baghdad these days, with consumption flourishing and confidence in the government growing. The progress is astonishing, but can it last?
Pork is available in Baghdad once again. Not just in the Green Zone, where US diplomats can enjoy their spare ribs and Parma ham, but also across the Tigris River, in the real Baghdad, at “Al-Warda” on Karada Street. Bassim Dencha, 32, one of the few Christians remaining in Iraq and the co-owner of Baghdad’s finest supermarket, has developed a supply line from Syria. As a result, he now has frozen pork chops and bratwurst arranged in his freezers, next to boxes of frozen French fries and German Black Forest Cakes. And the customers are buying.
For four years, selling pork or alcohol in Baghdad was a security risk. But the acts of terror committed by Islamist fundamentalists, who once punished such violations of their interpretation of the Koran with attacks on businesses and their owners, have gradually subsided. The supply of imported goods is also relatively secure today, now that roads through the Sunni Triangle are significantly safer than they were only a few months ago.
“It’s worth it again,” says businessman Bassim Dencha. “All we need now is enough electricity to reopen our refrigerated warehouse.”
And on and on, with details of progress and optimism. The story (of course) points to the fragility of this renewal, and has doom and gloom statements about its sustainability, but the story’s general tenor is cautious optimism.
Do you think Harry Reid or Nancy Pelosi or Barack Obama have read this? Do you think they care? How about the New York Times, ABC, NBC, CBS, CNN, MSNBC, Newsweek, Time, etc., ad nauseum? I doubt any of them want to see stories like this published in America between now and November. It will be devastating to their oft repeated message that the Iraq War is unwinnable (since this report allows for the possibility that we won), and that Bush was a horrible, malevolent idiot, whose wrongful conduct taints all Republicans, practically mandating an Obama victory.
Please go to the Spiegel story and email it to your friends. More people should read it and see what they’re missing when they open America’s papers and magazines, or turn on the news channels.
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3 Responses to “Quick! Someone tell the American voters about this news from Iraq.”
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Pork is available in Baghdad once again. Not just in the Green Zone, where US diplomats can enjoy their spare ribs and Parma ham, but also across the Tigris River, in
Anti-American, since surely the Spiegel has nothing against elitism and corruption at the highest levels.
Bassim Dencha, 32, one of the few Christians remaining in Iraq
Trying to remind people of past bygones.
The authors are critical of the Iraqi government for still not having passed a law that would regulate the development of oil fields and the distribution of profits among the country’s 18 provinces.
When you guys have gotten the US Congress to pass drilling in ANWAR and removal of nuclear power plant and oil refinery building restrictions, then maybe the authors can be critical of another foreign government that they have sought to sabotage.
The pessimists have strong arguments and experience on their side. And experience has shown that things usually go downhill in Iraq, with only brief uphill periods.
Anti-American groin shot.
Paradoxically, this new confidence in Maliki began with a fiasco. In March, he ordered 30,000 men to march into the southern Iraqi port city of Basra to oust the militias, especially the Mahdi Army of Shiite leader Muqtada al-Sadr.
Another continuation of an enemy produced myth.
One thousand Iraqi soldiers deserted,
less than the French and UN peacekeepers combined, let me say that.
At first, his activism irritated General David Petraeus, the commander of US forces in Iraq, but now Petraeus supports Maliki’s operations.
Do you really trust editors and reporters, let alone Spiegel, to tell you what Petraeus was doing or thinking? I didn’t think so. Half the time, they don’t even know what they, the MSM, are doing.
Enderlin anyone?
The Mahdi Army has not ended its resistance, Sadr writes, but it will be split in two from now on. Some of the faithful members of his militia, “men of experience, organization, knowledge and the willingness to make sacrifices,” are authorized to continue to carry weapons and use them “against the occupation, and no one else,” and must do so in “absolute secrecy,” writes the militia leader. The others, he continues, “thousands, rather millions,” are obligated to fight in “cultural, social and religious” ways against “secular thoughts, against Western hegemony and globalization.”
Sounds like a Western intellectual and socialist alright.
Those who refuse to abide by this assignment of duties are no longer with me,
The Coalition should have raided your house and those that withdrew from the Iraqi government, and ended it once and for all.
In the end, still, for the Spiegel it is a mine of gold. Just a thin vein.
I ran across a fascinating “Democrat Leadership” pdf file from 2007:
http://majorityleader.house.gov/docUploads/MilitaryOpposesEscalation.pdf
A subsequent search across Google on the more prominent names shows that this is a factual article. Colin Powell and the Join Chiefs (at that time) DID oppose the surge. Also disturbing is that Robert Gates opposed the surge. The article missed the fact that Condoleeze Rice opposed the surge. A number of supposed military experts opposed the surge.
None of these people realized that the Surge was not just an increase in troops, but rather a radical change in strategy, a radical change in THOUGHT and philosophy about how to fight an insurgency.
Generals Petraeus and Odierno should receive accolades for their wisdom. In fact, I believe Petraeus deserved Al Gore’s Nobel Peace Prize, and hopefull will win it this year instead. Yes, and pigs may fly… I know how likely that really is. For the first time, we have a blueprint for success against an insurgency. This is invaluable, considering what a complete failure Rumsfeld’s prior policy had been.
The lack of wisdom shown by Condoleeze Rice and Robert Gates is deeply troubling. I keep hearing rumors that we are engaged in a covert war to destablize Iran, as a preferred alternative to an extraordinarily difficult military operation. I deeply hope these reports of a covert effort to destablize Iran are true. For one, THAT is the kind of pressure that can cause the Iranians to modify their position without the extreme costs and risks of military invasion.
But because I question the wisdom of Rice and Gates, I must wonder whether they are supporting this covert operation, or whether instead they believe in the worthless idea of paper-negotiations by clueless diplomats. Without the threat of force - or any current efforts at destabilization or pressure - the diplomats are just idiots mouthing words that the Iranians will sneer at.
One can only hope that Rice and Gates are not pod persons mouthing meaningless words. Hopefully we can avoid the necessity for military operations against Iran via a successful covert operation against the enemy leadership in Iran. Hopefully Rice and Gates are on board.
And one more detailing just how extraordinary it was for Petraeus to advocate the Surge, and in doing so oppose Admiral Fallon’s plans for surrender in Iraq.
http://www.antiwar.com/porter/?articleid=11606
This article makes it absolutely clear why Fallon had to go. His profound lack of wisdom, and his decision to draw a line in the sand for a position on which he lost, makes it clear that that he had to be purged. Likewise, had the surge failed, it would have been Petraeus’ head on the block. The Surge was THAT important.
And now we know that Petraeus has an anti-insurgency policy that works. Petraeus’ bravery and commitment to a policy that could have ended his career, and its spectacular success, is why I think he deserves the Nobel Peace Prize. And why I think Fallon deserves to have to spend the rest of his days being mocked and derided and having pies thrown at his face, until he acknowledges how wrong he was. OK, maybe I’m going to far about the pies.