I read a column today by Ralph Peters titled THE SEWERS OF BABYLON and it left me with the following question:
Why does it take a non-journalist, retired military officer, like Ralph Peters to write a story like this about Iraq?
We hear no end of tales of failure in Iraq. But because of one small project (and there are hundreds such in Iraq), 10,000 of our fellow human beings won't have to live with sewage in their streets and shanties. That makes a real, human difference. Yes, it might be minor in the great schemes of global strategy. It won't make us loved throughout the Middle East. But America's soldiers make a profound difference in here-and-now lives. How many armies in history could make that claim?We've all heard plenty about human-rights abuses. What about those 10,000 dirt-poor Iraqis whose children will have a chance to escape disease? The old regime wouldn't spare them a few pipes and pumps. Isn't exposing a child to cholera while building palaces for yourself a human-rights abuse?
By the way: I didn't see any of our self-righteous critics in the Risalah slum.
But I did see Sgt. Maurice Harris, Spec. Victor Tsung and PFC (hey, promote that guy!) Brad Sheets, along with their comrades in arms. They were soldiers to the core, mastering a new type of war. And they were great Americans.For all the bad news you hear — much of it viciously skewed — Baghdad is a city of hope. And it isn't thanks to Saddam — or to those in the West who opposed a tyrant's overthrow.
Great job, GI!
If the so-called "Mainstream Media" wants to know why its popularity numbers and ratings are tubing, answering that question would be a good first step.
Answer--The story does not fit the mains stream media narrative. That narrative is that it was a mistake to liberate Iraq and all the US forces who do not agree with that narrative arew incompetant boobs. As Simon and Garfunkle sing in the Boxer, "a man hears what he wants to hear and disregards the rest."
All right, but apart from the sanitation, medicine, education, wine, public order, irrigation, roads, the fresh water system and public health, what have the Romans ever done for us?
Look, I supported OIF, and I still think it was the right thing to do, and that we should finish the job.
But really. Ive seen successful projects highlighted in the MSM (well at least the WaPo) And ive seen disasters highlighted. I look at the Brookings index, which seems fair, to see how reconstruction is going. The situation on the ground vis-a-s reconstruction is mixed. Alot of new infra up, yes, but electricity prod is stalled, and barely above prewar, and is unreliable, oil production is still a big problem, and in general the economy in the center of the country - baghdad and the Sunni triangle is mediocre to bad (while being good in the Shia south and very good in Kurdistan).
Polls show Iraqis hopeful about the future, and thats a good sign. But they dont say things are good now, cause, AFAICT, the reality is they arent.
But i suppose im an idiot liberal for not believing Iraq today has become heaven on earth.
What liberalhawk said. This schtick is getting old. The media is the media and always will be, because reporters and editors have the same cognitive biases as the rest of us; you don't read many stories about things going right because things going right fails to grab our attention. Why is anyone still feigning shock and indignation about this?
The newsies won't report good news that they haven't seen. They will report bad news they haven't seen. And they won't leave the safety of their hotel rooms in Iraq.
Perhaps there is a intellectual, and career difference between journalists and historians which would explain why "if it bleeds, it ledes".
Matt,
The media derives its moral standing, which has escalated to delusions that they are the modern priestly class of secular socieites, from their supposed commitment to reporting (take your pick) the truth, the facts, et. al. in this vein. If that goes away... well, think of it as a bad news story worth telling.
This continues to be an issue because the troops who are there every day keep saying that the place the media talks about isn't a place they recognize. See Murdoc's interview right here just last week for another example.
Then we couple it with consistent surveys from many sources that show incredibly lopsided political affiliation slants within the profession.
Let's see... professional failure of obligation plus non-representative profession (while spouting crap about "diversity"), in time of war.... don't think you need to be a journalist to recognize a story there.
Joe,
What we have is a "Col Blimp" media.
They never go near the front.
They report only what they want to hear.
And they keep making ultra-hyped stories on everything, especially if it might hurt Pres. Bush, the way the WW1 British and French chateau generals ordered fruitless trench assaults that mounded the dead and churned the French countryside.
They don't do any different because it is all they know and all they want to know.
Speaking of whom, if it weren't so consistent with other posts, I would assume that the claims above that the Mainstream Media is missing the Great Sewer Story and other "good" news from Iraq because they have to hunker down in the Green Zone would be a parody written by a liberal in sarcasm mode. Let's see, if it's so safe and wonderful everywhere except Baghdad, why don't they all just move? On this planet, the danger to journalists covering the war is itself very bad news. They're getting kidnapped and killed. Over sixty journalists have been killed covering the Iraq War, and will soon surpass the totals for Vietnam and World War Two. In the meantime I can think of only one war-intoxicated pundit of the 101st Fighting Keyboarders to show similar devotion, and he, Michael Kelly, belongs to both groups.
Andrew J is to be congratulated for his clever use of the French version of the story, since Le Monde is better at embellishing a story than any blogger.
He might have read the original report and have spared us the disinformation. http://www.sigir.mil/reports/pdf/testimony/SIGIR_Testimony_06-002T.pdf