MSNBC’s Arnot Contradicts Media Image of Iraq in Violent Chaos

Bob Arnot, who rarely appears on NBC News programs, popped up Monday night on MSNBC’s Hardball with Chris Matthews to contradict the image of chaos in Iraq hyped by the media. Launching Hardball’s week-long series, “Iraq: The Real Story,” Arnot recounted the challenges faced by troops in hostile areas, but countered the negative image of the Iraqi situation he knows Americans get from TV news.

Arnot argued: “The real question is, given all the death and destruction that you see on television in the United States, what’s the real deal out here? The fact is in 85 percent of the country, it’s calm, it’s stable, it’s moving forward. You find a lot of places like Horia [sp?], where we were today, and Kadame [sp] where they actually like or even love Americans.”

Touring a shopping area, Arnot relayed how, “from what you see on TV from Baghdad you’d think that, with the mortars and rockets, that this was a city under siege.” In fact, he contended, “nothing could be further from the truth in many neighborhoods.” Arnot sounded like a spokesman for the Baghdad Chamber of Commerce, MRC analyst Geoffrey Dickens observed, as he admired the selection of merchandise available: “They also have here some of the latest fashions, they will tell you from Milan, Paris, and Damascus. Here’s another store here, ladies clothing with jeans, the latest shoes, nice pocket books.”

Arnot began with time in spent with some troops in an area where Americans are less welcome: “It had all the ingredients for disaster. A Sunni town, home to over 100,000 former Iraqi soldiers, 1,000 generals and dangerous terror cells. From this battle command center, the Army’s 101st Air Assault Division has engineered what many thought impossible: local elections within weeks of the war’s end; schools kept open; and Iraqi police training to get back on the street fast. Still while there was no major insurrection, there are now daily attacks on U.S. troops, with RPGs, improvised explosive devices, mortars, even rockets.”

Unidentified officer: “It’s been a tough couple weeks when you really look at it.” Arnot: “On the front lines, light infantry soldiers make up Strike Force. This is something that you may not have seen very often. That is a dismounted patrol. Colonel Joe Anderson is the commanding officer of the Second Brigade of the 101st Airborne. It looks pretty dicey out here.”

Col. Joe Anderson, U.S. Army: “It, it potentially can be, because you don’t know, you don’t know friend from foe. So it’s a lot of people and their primary focus is buying their stuff and getting on with business. But it’s certainly an environment where anybody can get in there and do what they want to. It would be a hard thing to react to.” Arnot: “These patrols help keep the 101st engaged with the local population, a critical source of intelligence. Now, you have a lot of local support here. People turning in the bad guys. Why is that?”

Col. Anderson: “I think, I think people want to, they see progress; they’re getting a pretty good taste of what democracy, freedom is all about. Their quality of life has gone up. I think people like that. And I think they like not being oppressed. So the average person will cooperate. It’s just those that are still die-hards, which I think are the clear minority. But then again, they are resourced, and that makes, that can have an impact.” Arnot: “During our patrol, Colonel Anderson stops multiple times to consult with his commanders, who have grim reports from other parts of the city....Then the colonel learns there’s a plan to assassinate him today. Later, inspecting the jail, he reluctantly agrees to discuss it.” Colonel Anderson: “I think I’d be a target for being kind of associated with a lot of the progress here based on our guys. So I'm the guy that commands the outfit, but a very public figure in terms of television, radio, papers, public forums, etc.”

Arnot: “Unfazed, the colonel and his strike force continue to patrol Mosul’s markets, on foot and far from help. What’s the real deal? What’s the real reality here in Iraq?” Col. Anderson: “I think you just gave the real deal. I think the real deal is the people’s quality of life here is better than it ever was. And they’re enjoying it, and there’s progress being made every day.”

Matthews inquired of Arnot: “Bob, can our military locate, target and destroy our enemies over there right now?” Arnot: “Well, they have a lot of help. They have been able to take 75 percent of the terrorists off the street in Mosul. What they’re finding, especially after some of the big bombings like the RCIC, a lot more people are coming forward. They’re like their 9/11 there. They really hate a lot of these guys. You have a number of different elements. At the very top, you have the old regime. They took two generals off the street in Fallujah the other day. Tens of millions of dollars to spend.

The ominous thing is that they’re finding the really bad neighborhoods have a combination of the Islamists, Wahhabis, Ansar al-Islam and the old regime. That’s where you have the strange collusion that’s sort of morphing into a quasi-Islamic revolution here. And at the bottom, just a bunch of bad guys. I talked to a General Dempsey the other day. He says right here in Baghdad, you only have about 10 or 12 bad cells. Each of those cells may have 10 to 20 people in it. But you have probably 2,000 bad guys at the bottom that are the real mobsters.

I met last night with some of the top commanders here in the 101st Airborne. They are bound and determined to get these guys. They’re getting a lot of good information. They’re getting them on the street. A lot of smart moves. Abu Gray, where they have little Mogadishu, where they shoot down on U.S. forces with rocket propelled grenades, put improvised explosive devices by the side of the road, they actually had the locals take down the local marketplace. And they gave them new money to build that in a safer area. Chris, these commanders are absolutely in the fight of their lives. They’re using every last bit of brainpower they have. It’s a smart fight out here.

It’s an insurgency that there’s no real sort of command and control that they can see at this point. Lots of different people coming at them. They’re trying to win hearts and minds on the one hand. On the other hand, at night they’re fighting these bad guys. Compound is not very far from here, Chris.

These guys have eight to 10 mortars that come in every single night. They say it’s the toughest, most complicated battle that the U.S. military has fought in generations.”

Matthews: “Bob, would more troops help the effort?” Arnot: “I don’t really think so. I think the bottom line is you want to get more and more Iraqis out on the front. You’re gonna see it in a couple days a great story here I did with the 17th Field Artillery. What they did is they went out and they hired ex-Republican Guards. They put them into a private security company. They play the national anthem. They have Iraqi colonels back out there.

They have a great deal of pride in it. The more Iraqis you get out there in front of American soldiers, the better, whether it’s the civilian defense corps or the police, they’re training them. That’s the real solution, is to get more out there and have terrific intelligence....”

Matthews: “Do the Iraqi people themselves know who is fighting us? In other words, are they a clearly identifiable group of people? The remnants of the, the, the government, the new Jihadists who have joined them. Do the people of Iraq, if you had them under interrogation, would they be able to say, 'The Rover behind that corner around there.’ Would they know that? The people themselves?” Arnot: “You know, a lot of people don’t know that. I met last night one of the chief ayatollahs, one of the chief Shiah clerics here in the country and he said, 'Look, there are three different groups here we’re concerned about. The Wahhabi, he basically believes there’s command and control from Saudi Arabia. You have the ex-regime power brokers, as they call them right now.

You have this sort of new Islamist morphing here, a very, very sort of fundamentalist movement....But by and large, in neighborhoods here, they see somebody strange, they don’t know who they are. They’re starting to report them. The bottom line is, get the Iraqi police and civil defense forces out there, because they know who the bad guys are. They recognize them. And they can turn them in faster than American forces can find him. But a huge, concerted effort here. Met with five colonels last night at their FOB, their forward operating base. And they are planning hard and fast to try and make this Bremer prediction not come true by getting these guys off the street.”

Later in the show, Matthews asked Arnot: “Welcome back to Hardball and our week long coverage of 'Iraq: The Real Story.’ What’s life like for ordinary Iraqis? MSNBC’s chief foreign affairs correspondent, Bob Arnot, has spent a lot of time among the people of Iraq. And he recently took a tour of downtown Baghdad, the shopping district, to see if life is returning to normal.”

Arnot: “Chris, from what you see on TV from Baghdad, you’d think that, with the mortars and rockets, that this was a city under siege. Nothing could be further from the truth in many neighborhoods. Look at this. They’ve even painted the flower and tree boxes by the side of the street. They have late-model Mercedes and BMWs. Traffic is not much of a problem right here, right now. But during the day, they actually have a million more cars on the streets. You have lots of trucks coming in from Kuwait and Jordan with all kinds of products, some of it just fresh here out on the street. The latest model shoes, fashionable ones. They have posters here of all the rock stars. You can get a parka. A nice-looking shirt for your kids here. And look at the quality of the shops.

Now, gold you can get here for a very reasonable price. This is 21-karat gold. And they have beautiful necklaces, bracelets, rings here, high-quality. Security is good enough that they can leave this window open the way that it is. Watches, some of them even from Switzerland, some of the latest models here.” [Speaks to shopkeeper in Arabic] “Yes, American. Very, very, very friendly. I’ll be back. Look at this, too, a lot of women in traditional dresses, Chris. But they also have here some of the latest fashions, they will tell you from Milan, Paris, and Damascus. Here’s another store here, ladies clothing with jeans, the latest shoes, nice pocket books. You have nuts, lots of them, dates, all kinds of seeds. Here’s a men’s store. And, if you want to look pretty fashionable here in Mansour, they have these nice leather jackets.” [Greets shopkeeper in Arabic] “Shoes, of course. Another men’s store here. Again, a nice leisure suit, if you like those, leisure, leisure suits, I should say. And then finally, and this is my favorite place, the juice bar. Let’s see what they have.”

Arnot concluded: “So you’ll find that people are friendly. They like Americans, by and large here. They’re still very worried about their security. They’re quite concerned about terrorists here coming into schools, very concerned about their houses being robbed. But when you ask them about a light at the end of the tunnel, they see it; 67 percent of people fully believe that in a year, things will be dramatically better. Chris, back to you.”

The Iraqi people seem to be a lot more optimistic than most American journalists. Arnot is the exception that proves the rule.

That would be a shame, Bob Arnot did some great reporting from Iraq during the war. I was riveted one night when they had him reporting from the middle of a firefight. It was incredible, just his voice reporting what was happening moment by moment, I think it went on for about 1/2 an hour or so. It really gave me chills, as you could hear the big guns fireing above him, and he was helping a smaily caught in the middle hide with him in a ditch.

Maybe Fox should scoop him up!

We need a Freeper to volunteer to go to Iraq and report back to us. We can't trust reporters, the Soldiers and Marines are busy enough and might get in trouble.

Anybody want to volunteer? (Um, I'm kinda busy myself, and I don't think the Missus would approve).

"That would be a shame, Bob Arnot did some great reporting from Iraq during the war."

Arnot is a renaissance kinda guy. He is an MD, and they used to refer to him as Dr. Bob Arnot. He is also quite an accomplished pilot, with multi-engine, instrument, and turbine ratings. Takes a lot to rattle him.

For some reason, the NBC pipple seem to prefer Robert Bazell for their medical reports, although I find his style and reliance on cookie-cutter story templates very annoying. Arnot didn't used to do that. I also get annoyed at Tom Brokaw when he introduces Bazell as "Brazell." Tom has a number of speech problemos, so he's invented some crutches to help him thru words and phrases he has trouble saying. "Brazell" is one of them. He also calls attorneys "royers." And in introducing "NBC News In Depth," he always adds "tonight" as if that was the name of the segment, but it's a phrasing crutch. Once he tried saying NBC News In Depth WITHOUT the word "tonight" and he stumbled like a fool.

I really hate it that David Bloom passed away during his trip to Iraq. He had a very engaging way of reporting and was on the rise big time.

Michael

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