[Dean's World] Dave Price: Even Newsweek Grudgingly Acknowledges Iraq Progress

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Posted by Dave Price:
Even Newsweek Grudgingly Acknowledges Iraq Progress
http://www.deanesmay.com/posts/1195494481.shtml


   In an article full of doubt and pessimism, Newsweek nonetheless
   finally admits, despite itself, that [1]the situation is improving.

     For the first time, however, returning to Baghdad after an absence
     of four months, I can actually say that things do seem to have
     gotten better, and in ways that may even be durable. "It's hard to
     believe," says a friend named Fareed, who has also gone and come
     back over the years to find the situation always worse, "but this
     time it's really not."

   They even use the word "grudgingly." And of course, they omit little
   details like the fact electricity production and oil revenue are at
   record highs, as is access to potable water and sewage systems as well
   as the availability of cellphones, generators, and automobiles. And of
   course they don't mention little things like the fact that thanks to
   the war Iraqis now have the right to vote, hold peaceful protests,
   have free press, etc., because civil rights apparently mean nothing
   except for the purpose of pretending Bush is taking them away. (It's
   sort of amazing that the same people who claim to be defending
   democracy by arguing the thousands of deaths on 9/11 do not justify
   allegedly violating our sacred civil rights by warrantlessly
   wiretapping suspected terrorists can simultaneously argue that the
   violence in Iraq makes the incredible advance of democracy and basic
   human rights there meaningless.)
   The article once again repeats the canard that Baghdad is peaceful
   only because it is now totally ethnically partitioned, a meme that
   will apparently never die [2]no matter [3]how many [4]times our
   [5]troops refute [6]it, much like the notion Bush said "Mission
   Accomplished" -- a shot at the President which the article also
   manages to work in. All Newsweek needed was a [7]plastic turkey
   reference to make the moonbat trifecta.
   Still, despite the inevitable leftism, the article does convey a sense
   things are getting better, and even manages to corectly identify the
   reason why:

     Sunni neighborhoods like Yarmouk have been quieted largely by what
     the military calls "concerned citizens groups," volunteers who have
     sprung up all over Baghdad and are being paid by the Americans to
     combat Al Qaeda in their districts. Many of them are former Iraqi
     insurgents. "It's huge," General Fil says of the impact of these
     groups, which go by various names in various communitiesâthe
     Awakening, Freedom Fighters, Knights of the Two Rivers. In Baghdad,
     the U.S. military says it has forked over about $17 million to the
     volunteers, to enroll some 67,000 fighters. "That's less than the
     cost of one Apache helicopter, and it's done a lot more good," says
     Fil. "I don't know how many hundreds of lives it's saved."

   Because of the atrocious media coverage, most people still do not
   realize the primary reason the surge has been successful and produced
   results that are likely to be durable is that the tactics have
   changed. Reconciliation and engagement have replaced retaliation and
   isolation, and that will continue long after U.S. troop levels
   decline.

References

   1. http://www.newsweek.com/id/70990
   2. http://www.defenselink.mil/news/newsarticle.aspx?id=32766
   3. http://www.defenselink.mil/news/newsarticle.aspx?id=47780
   4. http://www.defenselink.mil/news/newsarticle.aspx?id=47538
   5. http://www.defenselink.mil/news/newsarticle.aspx?id=47538&447538=20070921
   6. http://www.defenselink.mil/news/newsarticle.aspx?id=3288&43288=20070307
   7. http://timblair.net/ee/index.php/weblog/turkey_roll/