The Important News About Iraq That Has Gone Unreported

For the past month or so, while the media have been obsessed with the activities of Moqtada Sadr and his fighters in Najaf, much of the really important news about Iraq has gone largely unreported...

Students of journalism, however, know the difference between the events that furnish most of the daily headlines and the undercurrents that shape the broader context of a society’s political life. Now what are the undercurrents that, with eyes fixed on the current events, are largely ignored?

The most important is that post-liberation Iraq, defying great odds, has succeeded in carrying out its political reform agenda on schedule. A governing council was set up at the time promised. It in turn, created a provisional government right on schedule. Next, municipal elections were held in almost all parts of the country. Then followed the drafting of a new democratic and pluralist constitution...

Bringing together some 1300 men and women representing all ethnic, religious, linguistic and political groups, the congress was the first genuinely pluralistic assembly of Iraqis at that level.

I've known that this was going on in the background, that the country is rapidly stabilizing--amazing when you consider the number of guns, suicidal ethnic & religious sects, and the outside interests who are trying to destabilize things.

It's sad that it's not reported--since anything good and noble about America is considered too pro-Bush in this political season. Sadly, I've had to track this progress indirectly by the fact that the press would be trumpeting any major failures of democracy taking root if there were breaks in the timeline for national elections.

I did read a year ago that fortunately Sadaam's Iraq was a very non-religious governmental-business-administrative society. That, coupled with an educated populace & huge natural resources in oil and agriculture, gives Iraq an excellent chance to quickly vault past third-world status and serve as a beacon of progress and democracy in the Middle East.

Those who believe the George W. did all this out of anger and revenge are deluded. His actions were bold and original. He saw the possibility, maybe a long-shot, for a post-terrorist Middle East. Like so many High School rebel movies, he identified Iraq as the worst jeuvenile delinquent who could become the best leader. All that was needed was to get rid of the old leadership and to rapidly re-educate the populace in Civial Affairs 101.

Great article. The problem is that the media (and the Dims) won't report it. All good news is bad news for them. All bad news is good news for them. So in their own little twisted minds, they are reporting "good" news. I think I'll go fishing until the election. I am about sick of hearing everything pro-Kerry.

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