Great post there on #46, Southack. Thanks. Famed War Correspondent Joe Galloway
Calls for U.S. Pullout After Iraq Elections
Excerpt of Southack's post:
Southack On Iraq: The Great Poker Surprise
For Iraq, we have a beautiful thing going; the press thinks that we're losing, the armchair ankle-biters think that we're losing, and the terrorists think that we're losing. All that you have to do is to ask them about the impending Iraqi elections and they all exclaim that there will be too much violence to hold them. They're wrong.
What we're losing in Iraq are 1 to 2 Americans per day.
What we've gotten in exchange are the deaths of more than 100,000 jihadis, the vast waste of pro-jihadis funds, the cut-off of Saudi jihadist funds, Hussein in jail, Hussein's money cut off from the Palestinians, control of Pakistani nukes, the end of Egypt's, Lybia's, and Iraq's WMD programs, a strategic base from which to next strike any of Lebanon, Syria, or more likely: Iran...as well as a perfect roach motel in which jihadis come from all over to check in, but they don't check out alive.
Attacks in Iraq are down from 98 per day to 46 per day. Elections are coming up, and more than 120,000 Iraqi soldiers have now graduated from U.S. training.
We're flowing more oil out of Iraq right now than what Hussein managed to do pre-war. We've got more electricity over there, more teachers, more doctors, and better staffed local hospitals for the natives.
It's a thing of beauty.
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Thanks. The key is that our opponents are repeating their Afghan elections mistake. They built that election up as "not being possible" and that it would have "too much violence" and that "the country wouldn't participate in the vote," etc.
They are rehashing all of their failed spin from the successful Afghan elections over to the impending Iraqi elections. The entire press corps believes that there will be enormous violence in Iraq against the elections, just as they wrongly told us would happen in Afghanistan.
Oh sure, there will be a little violence; possibly 4 or 5 car bombings, a suicide bomber or two, some random mortar rounds...I mean, there are 48 attacks per day on average in Iraq that wind up killing 1 or 2 Americans and a dozen or so Iraqis. We'll see some level of violence at that plateau or perhaps a bit more.
But look over to the calm, peaceful, beach paradise of Rio de Janero, Brazil. Everyone knows that it's a tranquil utopia, after all, we only hear glowing tales from the liberal news media about Rio's bathing beauties and tourist bargains.
But on average *each day*, there are 110 adults shot dead in Brazil (mostly in Rio's slums). Far more are wounded every day. More still are beaten, knifed, drowned, poisoned, and car bombed.
But we in the U.S. and Asia and Europe are denied the perspective of what violence looks like in Rio versus the chaotic, war-torn quagmire of Iraq (where fewer than 20 people in sum are killed every day).
Does anyone doubt that Rio could hold a successful election today?! Of course not.
But people doubt that same thing about Iraq, even though there are fewer deaths each day during the current WAR than in Rio during their PEACE!
Such is the power of the press. Who among us would think twice about sending our children on a vacation to Brazil, yet how many of us would hesitate to do that same thing to Iraq?!
We are being denied the true reality of both Iraq and Brazil, and this denial has caused many to form conclusions based upon slanted facts. This is not the fault of the average Joe on the street. If the facts were given plainly to such a man, he'd form accurate conclusions. But those facts aren't being given to him accurately; they're being slanted.
Which is to say, everyone is making the same mistake about Iraq's elections that were made during the pessimistic run up to Afghanistan's elections.
...And once again, the predicted violence before and during the elections is going to be anti-climatic.
Which brings me back to my key point: the lack of subtantial violence during Iraq's elections at the end of this month will PROVE the media hype wrong. AGAIN.
If you want one talking point: ask any reporter what it will mean if the Iraqi resistance fails to damage the election turnout.
