Iraq through Iraqis' eyes

townhall.com ^ | 12/17/04 | Jeff Jacoby

[kattracks]

A year after Saddam Hussein was captured, how goes the liberation of Iraq?

If a phrase like "the liberation of Iraq" strikes you as ironic, chances are most of what you know about the situation there comes from the mainstream press. After all, a tidal wave of journalism has been portraying Iraq as a chaotic mess more or less from the moment US troops entered the country.

[snip]

There was chaos during the US occupation of Germany after World War II, and journalists were certain then too that military victory was being squandered through postwar blunders. In 1946, leading publications concentrated bad news in articles with headlines like "How We Botched the German Occupation" (Saturday Evening Post), "US seen 'fumbling' its job in Germany" (New York Times), and "Americans Are Losing the Victory in Europe" .

[snip]

"Voices of Iraq" -- is a gripping documentary that for the first time shows Iraq as even the most skillful American journalist will never be able to show it: through the eyes and ears of Iraq's people.

[snip]

In the film, a young Kurdish mother tells her daughter, who is wielding the camcorder, how she would burn herself with cigarettes to prepare for the torture she knew was coming.

[snip]

One man explains that Saddam's son Uday "used to come often to Ravad Street -- every Thursday for the market -- to choose a girl to rape."

[snip]

Iraqis haven't had much experience with democracy, but we see the delight they take in the new opportunities Saddam's defeat is making possible.

[snip]

But things are looking up in Iraq, as the Iraqis themselves will be happy to tell you. All someone had to do was ask.

[Just Lori]

But things are looking up in Iraq, as the Iraqis themselves will be happy to tell you. All someone had to do was ask.


The mainstream media won't do that. They just don't get it.

[kattracks]

They just don't get it.

They get it alright, they just don't want to publicize it.

[ajolympian2004]

A nephew in the 101st Airborne who is going back to serve in Iraq for the third time is very enthusiastic and eager to get going with the mission. Like many other returning veterans of Iraq and Afghanistan he found the news coverage by the mainstream media in our country to be appalling and with an anti-military tinge to the reporting, except for FoxNews.

I personally view some of the reporters on NBC, CBS, ABC, MSNBC and CNN as borderline traitors. Their disrespect for the men and women of our military with their one-sided coverage that rolls out the red carpet for the propaganda of islamic terrorists murderers who are being weeded out in Iraq, Afghanistan and elsewhere.