Facts vs. Fiction: A Report from the Front

The American Enterprise ^ | February 2006 | Karl Zinsmeister

[RKV]

Your editor has just returned from another month in Iraq—my fourth extended tour in the last two and a half years. During November and December I joined numerous American combat operations, including the largest air assault since the beginning of the war, walked miles of streets and roads, entered scores of homes, listened to hundreds of Iraqis, observed voting at a dozen different polling sites, and endured my third roadside ambush. With this latest firsthand experience, here are answers to some common queries about how the war is faring.
...

Iraq is now creeping away from murderous authoritarianism to face the more normal messes of a creaky Third World nation: corruption, poverty, health problems, miserable public services. And that is vastly preferable to what came before.

[Chena]

Excellent article/report!

BTTT

[Boot Hill]

Great read, bump

[Lancer_N3502A]

excellent read.

[Sisku Hanne]

Thanks, Coop. You did what I was wishing to do, but didn't know how!

This article is a full round of ammo for every tired lefty talking point out there. I posted it on a lib-infested board and they went apoplectic!!!!!

[maica]

A snippet (Guess I better not change my tagline just yet)--

One media critic (Arthur Chrenkoff) did a content analysis of a typical day (January 21, 2005), and counted this breakout of freshly published stories on Iraq:

• 1,992 covering terrorist attacks
• 887 essays alleging prisoner abuse by the British
• 289 about American casualties or civilian deaths in Iraq
• 27 mentions of oil pipeline sabotage
• 761 reports on public statements of terrorists
• 357 on U.S. anti-war protestors
• 121 speculations on a possible American pullout
• 118 articles about strains with European nations
• 217 stories worrying over the validity of the upcoming January 30 Iraqi election
• 216 tales of hostages in Iraq
• 123 quoting Vice President Cheney saying he had underestimated reconstruction needs
• 2,642 items on a Senate grilling of Condoleezza Rice over Iraq policy

Balanced against these negative stories, Chrenkoff ’s computer search found a grand total of 96 comparatively positive reports related to Iraq:

• 16 reports on successful operations against insurgents
• 7 hopeful stories about Iraqi elections
• 73 describing the return of missing Iraqi antiquities

[basil]

I really love to see reports like this--too bad we don't see them very often. This guy apparently has a good grip on the situation, and I'm glad that he wrote this. I hope it gets widespread circulation.

[cf_river_rat]

Great Read - linked and emailed

Bumpin' on through...BTTT

[RKV]

Glad you liked it. Zinsmeister knows his stuff.

[angelsonmyside]

Thank you tgslTakoma for the ping and thank you RKV for the Excellent Article. Wish this kind of story would get more coverage.

[EternalVigilance]

Thanks for the ping!

Great piece!

[kattracks]

Great read. BTTT

[PleaDeal]

Thanks for the ping. TAE is one of the only mags I read cover-to-cover.

[VirginiaMom]

Thanks for the ping. Wonderful read!

[Coop]

That's a great post. Do you have a source for that, please? I'd love to send it around.

[concretebob]

BUMP

and bookmarked for when I haven't had a 16 hour day, which started at 4 AM this morning.

[Cap Huff]

There are a lot of big stories going on right now, but this perspective needs to be seen and read.

Don't miss this bump.

[Jimmy Valentine's brother]

Geeze how come Karl Zinsmeister survives roadside attacks but the ABC "Ken Doll", as the lovely and beautiful Vivien Valentine calls Woodruff, nearly gets his head blown off?

[maica]

It's in this Zinsmeister article almost at the end.

[Sisku Hanne]

BTW, Chrenkoff's Blog is the definitive go-to spot for the good news from Iraq. He's the best thing out of Australia since opals and Fosters!

[Christopher Lincoln]

There is no reason to be Pollyannish about Iraq. Like nearly every Arab nation, it is not a competent society at present. Trade, manufacturing, and farming have been suffocated by bad governance. Public servants routinely skim funds.

There is another negative factor in Iraq (and elsewhere), namely Islam. This fact, however regrettable, needs to be pointed out. I believe it was Eric Hoffer who observed, many years ago, that practically everywhere where both Muslims and non-Muslims live, it is the latter who carry on the bulk of the nation's trade. This is true alike where Muslims are the majority and where they are a minority, where Muslims rule and where they are ruled by non-Muslims.