More unreported news from Iraq
Gary at LFR points out yet another story that our esteemed local media outlets can't seem to find.
"On July 23, a local Iraqi man came to Patrol Base Inchon, near the Euphrates River, staffed by Company D, 4th Battalion, 31st Infantry Regiment, 2nd Brigade Combat Team, 10th Mountain Division (Light Infantry) out of Fort Drum, N.Y., and elements of the 4th Battalion, 4th Brigade, 6th Iraqi Army Division. He told troops that several other residents had chased a group of anti-Iraqi forces away from a weapons cache. He asked Soldiers to remove the weapons. Several local residents guarded the cache and placed a fluorescent marking cloth to alert helicopters that they were not hostile.Soldiers of Company D moved out to find the cache and were met on the road by some of the local residents, who guided them to the cache, which was next to a canal.The cache contained 210 57mm rockets, 25 82mm rockets, eight 120mm mortars, a large rocket, and a bag of homemade explosives."
To be fair to the Red Star, it did print a Clifford May opinion piece today that dares to give an opinion that will not be popular with Nick Coleman.
"For the sake of argument, imagine that opponents of the war in Iraq are right. Suppose that our military -- designed to confront a different enemy, on a different battlefield, in a different era -- has met its match. Suppose that the war against Al-Qaida in Iraq, as well as against various Iranian-backed Shiite militias, cannot be won, and that staying on in Iraq can do nothing to protect America's vital national security interests. If that's true, we must prepare for defeat in Afghanistan as well. There is no reason to believe that the strategy being used against us in Iraq will be less effective 1,400 miles farther east."
He then goes on to lay down all the dominoes that will fall should we withdraw from Iraq - as our esteemed friends on the left want us to do.
Well, not all of our friends on the left are calling for withdrawal. Two writers from the Brookings Institute (hardly a "conservative" think tank) had an op-ed in the New York Times of all places and they are saying that the surge is working!
"VIEWED from Iraq, where we just spent eight days meeting with American and Iraqi military and civilian personnel, the political debate in Washington is surreal. The Bush administration has over four years lost essentially all credibility. Yet now the administration’s critics, in part as a result, seem unaware of the significant changes taking place.
Here is the most important thing Americans need to understand: We are finally getting somewhere in Iraq, at least in military terms. As two analysts who have harshly criticized the Bush administration’s miserable handling of Iraq, we were surprised by the gains we saw and the potential to produce not necessarily “victory” but a sustainable stability that both we and the Iraqis could live with. " (emphasis mine)
They then go on to talk about the successes in Ramadi, Baghdad, Tal Afar and Mosul - something you have yet to see here in Minnesota.
Look, I fully understand that good AND bad things are going on in Iraq. I do not want to through a tit for tat series of comments say "well this is what is bad" and "well this is what is good" because we can play that game all day long. What I would like everyone to do is take a good hard look at what our local papers are covering and what they are not covering. What they are not covering is as telling (vis a vis their inherent bias) as anything else. Until they start covering the good AND the bad, all Minnesotans should eschew the local media in favor of sources like the International Herald Tribune or the Times of London. You might get a truer picture of what is really happening in Iraq.
(cross posted at Anti-Strib)
"On July 23, a local Iraqi man came to Patrol Base Inchon, near the Euphrates River, staffed by Company D, 4th Battalion, 31st Infantry Regiment, 2nd Brigade Combat Team, 10th Mountain Division (Light Infantry) out of Fort Drum, N.Y., and elements of the 4th Battalion, 4th Brigade, 6th Iraqi Army Division. He told troops that several other residents had chased a group of anti-Iraqi forces away from a weapons cache. He asked Soldiers to remove the weapons. Several local residents guarded the cache and placed a fluorescent marking cloth to alert helicopters that they were not hostile.Soldiers of Company D moved out to find the cache and were met on the road by some of the local residents, who guided them to the cache, which was next to a canal.The cache contained 210 57mm rockets, 25 82mm rockets, eight 120mm mortars, a large rocket, and a bag of homemade explosives."
To be fair to the Red Star, it did print a Clifford May opinion piece today that dares to give an opinion that will not be popular with Nick Coleman.
"For the sake of argument, imagine that opponents of the war in Iraq are right. Suppose that our military -- designed to confront a different enemy, on a different battlefield, in a different era -- has met its match. Suppose that the war against Al-Qaida in Iraq, as well as against various Iranian-backed Shiite militias, cannot be won, and that staying on in Iraq can do nothing to protect America's vital national security interests. If that's true, we must prepare for defeat in Afghanistan as well. There is no reason to believe that the strategy being used against us in Iraq will be less effective 1,400 miles farther east."
He then goes on to lay down all the dominoes that will fall should we withdraw from Iraq - as our esteemed friends on the left want us to do.
Well, not all of our friends on the left are calling for withdrawal. Two writers from the Brookings Institute (hardly a "conservative" think tank) had an op-ed in the New York Times of all places and they are saying that the surge is working!
"VIEWED from Iraq, where we just spent eight days meeting with American and Iraqi military and civilian personnel, the political debate in Washington is surreal. The Bush administration has over four years lost essentially all credibility. Yet now the administration’s critics, in part as a result, seem unaware of the significant changes taking place.
Here is the most important thing Americans need to understand: We are finally getting somewhere in Iraq, at least in military terms. As two analysts who have harshly criticized the Bush administration’s miserable handling of Iraq, we were surprised by the gains we saw and the potential to produce not necessarily “victory” but a sustainable stability that both we and the Iraqis could live with. " (emphasis mine)
They then go on to talk about the successes in Ramadi, Baghdad, Tal Afar and Mosul - something you have yet to see here in Minnesota.
Look, I fully understand that good AND bad things are going on in Iraq. I do not want to through a tit for tat series of comments say "well this is what is bad" and "well this is what is good" because we can play that game all day long. What I would like everyone to do is take a good hard look at what our local papers are covering and what they are not covering. What they are not covering is as telling (vis a vis their inherent bias) as anything else. Until they start covering the good AND the bad, all Minnesotans should eschew the local media in favor of sources like the International Herald Tribune or the Times of London. You might get a truer picture of what is really happening in Iraq.
(cross posted at Anti-Strib)
Labels: Iraq, Media Bias
posted by The Lady Logician at
4:46 PM
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