'This Is The News The World Doesn't Hear' (Good news from Iraq--in Der Spiegel!!)

Captain's Quarters ^ | 8-14-07 | Ed Morrissey

[Renfield]

Der Spiegel has reflected and led overwhelming German opposition to the war in Iraq practically from the moment of the invasion in 2003. They have often featured George Bush on their cover in unflattering pictures and with negative headlines such as "Power and Lies", an issue last year in which they declared Iraq lost. However, they finally sent their own reporter for an in-depth tour of Iraq, and the magazine realizes that the world media has missed the story (via Medienkritik):

"...Since June, Ramadi residents have only known the war from televison. Indeed, US military officials at the Baghdad headquarters of Operation Iraqi Freedom often have trouble believing their eyes when they read the reports coming in from their units in Ramadi these days. Exploded car bombs: zero. Detonated roadside bombs: zero. Rocket fire: zero. Grenade fire: zero. Shots from rifles and pistols: zero. Weapons caches discovered: dozens. Terrorists arrested: many.

Ramadi is an irritating contradiction of almost everything the world thinks it knows about Iraq -- it is proof that the US military is more successful than the world wants to believe. Ramadi demonstrates that large parts of Iraq -- not just Anbar Province, but also many other rural areas along the Tigris and Euphrates Rivers -- are essentially pacified today. This is news the world doesn't hear: Ramadi, long a hotbed of unrest, a city that once formed the southwestern tip of the notorious "Sunni Triangle," is now telling a different story, a story of Americans who came here as liberators, became hated occupiers and are now the protectors of Iraqi reconstruction...."

Not all is sweetness and light in this lengthy, multi-part dispatch. Parts of Baghdad are worse than one might imagine, Ullrich Fichtner writes, and one can sense the civil war that awaits when outside authority disappears. Other parts of the capital have improved in ways that exceed expectations, but both have this in common: only the Americans could keep the lid on Baghdad long enough to keep war from exploding in the city.

In the rest of the country, Fichtner sees progress. We moved from being hated occupiers to protectors when we finally started doing something to improve the situation on the ground. The Iraqis had seen us as arbitrary authority unwilling to risk anything to save them from both themselves and the terrorists. The new strategy of aggressive tactics and engagement with the enemy has impressed them and won the allegiance of ordinary Iraqis -- and has taken the pressures off that otherwise could have been channeled into sectarian conflict.

Fichtner also reports that the "greatest enemies of success in Iraq" come from Iran and Syria. Iran supplies the terrorists with money and arms, and Syria allows them to infiltrate through their shared border with Iraq. How does the military know about Iranian involvement? It's not exactly a case for Sherlock Holmes. Some of the mines and grenades found in Iraq by Americans in arms caches still have the original packaging from their manufacturers in Iran.

Der Spiegel has its eyes open now. Perhaps the rest of the world will follow. Be sure to read the entire article; I started last night and it's well worth the time. Jules Crittenden has some excellent thoughts about the failure of media to do its job in Iraq.

[Renfield]

This is huge. For those of you who don't know, Der Spiegel is consistently among the most Anti-American of all European periodicals.

Links:

http://www.spiegel.de/international/world/0,1518,499154,00.html

http://medienkritik.typepad.com/blog/2007/08/spiegel-onlin-1.html

http://www.julescrittenden.com/2007/08/14/sprechen-sie-deutsches-mit-einer-tauben-welt/

[Renfield]

From David’s Medienkritik:

UPDATE: Victor Davis Hanson offers outstanding analysis that may - at least in part - explain what is going on at SPIEGEL. Excerpt:

“Yet the universal human desire to be associated in the here and now with the assumed winning side — and to shun perceived defeat — trumps them all. Throughout this war, that natural urge explains most of the volatile and shifting views of our politicians, pundits and media as they scramble to readjust to the up-and-down daily news from Iraq.

And so it is with the latest positioning about the surge that to a variety of observers seems successful — at least for now.”

Read the whole thing. ( http://www.victorhanson.com/articles/hanson081307.html )

(Via Instapundit) ( http://instapundit.com/archives2/008158.php )

[Rummenigge]

>>>Der Spiegel is consistently among the most Anti-American of all European periodicals. <<<

No it’s not.

[ConservativeMind]

Ping for later reading.

[Former Proud Canadian]

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