"The difference between extra-marital sex and extra marital sex is not to be sneezed at."
- George Will
Thursday, September 30, 2004
Just a quick question: How's it going in Iraq?
I can predict the answer to that question based upon your politics. If you are a strong Bush supporter your answer will be something along the lines of "Well, it's difficult, but we're winning". If you are a strong Kerry supporter - do they exist? let me rephrase - if you are a strong Bush despiser your answer will be something along the lines of "It's a disaster that will haunt us for years."
Pro-war yet Anti-Bush blogger Andrew Sullivan hyperventilates daily about Iraq.
Iraq The Model (in our blogroll, btw) presents a picture of hope and resolve.
The Bush campaign presents a winning war effort and is being criticised for being too optimistic.
The Kerry campaign points to a war effort that has already failed. In fact, their latest line is that the situation is so dire that Bush has a plan to reinstate the draft after the election (this is expertly fisked by Bryon over at Slings and Arrows)
The networks present, in general, a bleak and chaotic picture.
Some fair, balanced truth would be nice. Probably impossible until after the election.
Some food for thought [hat tip: National Review's Corner]:
Did you see the big headline or watch the top-of-the-newscast story about the success of our sons and daughters in Samarra, Iraq?So tell me - have you heard much news about the success in Samarra?
Of course, you didn't.
I found mention deep in stories from The Christian Science Monitor and The Associated Press. But it took e-mails from Marine officers in Iraq to relay the importance of this positive news ? so I could tell you.
It shouldn't be this way. Yet journalism in America is broken. It has no foundation of values by which many Americans can relate and depend. The moral of this column is not about one side prevailing in news coverage on the war on terror. It's simply about fairness ? about Americans getting both sides with the same prominence.
They're not. And media emphasis on Iraq being in chaos has coincided with John Kerry making the same pitch to voters. It makes you wonder, just as we did on the authenticity of Dan Rather's reporting. And now America knows about Rather's ruse.
''Samarra is a beaming success story over here,'' writes Lt. Col Jim Rose, a Tennessee Marine whose parents live in Old Hickory. ''We were getting ready for a take-down there right after Najaf. We told the locals, 'Hey, see what happened in Najaf? Is that what you want? Cause we're coming.' It took the locals about two days to get the bad guys out.''
Me neither.
The rest of the article is very good as well.
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Comments on "How's It Going In Iraq?":
2. Aaron Curtis
- 09/30/2004 8:49 am CDT
OpinionJournal has a feature called, "A roundup of the past two weeks' good news from Iraq." It is written by blogger Arthur Chrenkoff. Read it for yourself, but I find it very helpful.
http://www.opinionjournal.com/extra/?id=110005676
3. Cos
- 09/30/2004 11:09 am CDT
How is it going in Iraq? Well today a bomber killed 35 kids waiting for candy. I haven't read the whole story so I don't have the details. I think it is going as good as it is going to get. Consider what our goal is, which I think is near impossible. But if you believe that Sadam had solid links with Al Qaeda and Osama, and you believe that his regime was more a threat to the US than Iran, Syria, Saudi Arabia, Lebanon, N. Korea, or Pakistan, then it is going well. Better to fight them on their soil than ours, as I hear mentioned.
If you hate war and are totally against any aggression for what ever reason, then it is FUBAR in the worse way.
However, if you believe, as I do that our forces would have been better used hunting Osama in Pakistan, finishing the job of rebuilding Afghanistan, and using the money we are pouring into Iraq to strengthen our borders, revamp our intelligence depts, air traffic cotrol system and military, then this war is a bad decision that leaves us with no other alternative; stay until we have exhausted all our options until we can leave with some sort of satisfaction.
This is war of policy and conviction, not necessity. Some people can live with that others can't.
4. Bill
- 09/30/2004 12:23 pm CDT
Cos,
I respect your opinion, truly. But a few comments/clarifications.
The kids were killed by islamist terrorists, not Americans. That should be said. If we want to talk body-counts, you have to balance the ledger with the body count that would have existed if Saddam were still in power. And I can't figure out why the insurgents are killing far more muslim civilians than Americans. How does that help their cause?
"Consider what our goal is, which I think is near impossible." - we've gone over this before, so I'm not trying to draw you into a debate. But I hear this often. I'm no expert, but I'm old enough to remember people saying the exact same thing about defeating the Soviet Union.
"If you hate war and are totally against any aggression for what ever reason, then it is FUBAR in the worse way."
Well, I don't like war - war is horrible. I've been reading a book on WWII and it's unbelievable the barbarity of, for instance, some of the South Pacific battles. Do you know at one point the besieged Japanese were so starved they began eating dead Americans? Or have you read the Bataan death march saga, which displayed man's inhumanity to man (in this case the Japanese cruelty toward our soldiers) in ways you can barely imagine.
Or go back to Fredricksburg in the Civil War, when Confederate soldiers behind Maryes Heights mowed down union soldiers row after row. Imagine lying their all night, pinned down, with dead and dying soldiers all around you.
War is hell.
But - are you really totally against any aggression for any reason? Not to stop Hitler? Not to end Slavery? No aggression, ever?
We live in a broken world.
Also - FUBAR in the worst way? Trust me, this isn't FUBAR. This could get a lot worse. And we're in it till it's done, whoever gets elected. We need to do everything we can to keep it from becoming FUBAR.
However, if you believe, as I do that our forces would have been better used hunting Osama in Pakistan, finishing the job of rebuilding Afghanistan, and using the money we are pouring into Iraq to strengthen our borders, revamp our intelligence depts, air traffic cotrol system and military, then this war is a bad decision that leaves us with no other alternative; stay until we have exhausted all our options until we can leave with some sort of satisfaction.
I disagree with your premise but respect your reasoning here. You may be right. I hope not.
5. Cos
- 09/30/2004 12:46 pm CDT
Bill, I see what your saying, but if juxtapose this war with everything, then yes, comparitively it is a success. But it is not that simple for me. War is heck no doubt. As for the recent bombing, I was using that as an example of the everyday violence that happens to the Iraqis, that is part of their life, maybe it is better than living under Sadam, but why should we stop there? If we move from the basis of are position, which was, WMDs, to human rights, then again, we have chosen a soft target. I too don't want to go into a long debate on this, but I see Iran and N. Korea as 100 times more evil than Sadam.
Remember when thousands of student took over Tiananmen Square? There was an event to behold. The youth of China demanding freedom and democracy and literally standing down the world's largest army. China was and still is renowned for their human rights violations. They have long supported our enemies such as the N. Koreans and N. Vietnamese. Why did we not use the same justification we used for Sadam to go to war with them? (I know the answer just using this as fodor)
Anyway, I as I continue down my path as a Christian I am finding harder and harder to justify aggression as we know it today. Which is a real dilema when you consider where I am today and what I am doing! But this is my issue.
Oh and by the way, your stock just went up a notch in my book. Not very many people know about the Bataan Death March (one of the most brutal in history). I was able to visit the monument and got to talk to a Filipino survivor of that event. Heart breaking. I can't believe the depth of human cruelty.
6. Bill
- 10/01/2004 12:53 am CDT
Cos -
"Anyway, I as I continue down my path as a Christian I am finding harder and harder to justify aggression as we know it today"
I can respect that. Definitely
"I too don't want to go into a long debate on this, but I see Iran and N. Korea as 100 times more evil than Sadam."
I don't know if I can articulate this, but I believe that the administration believes that establishing a democracy in Iraq is one of the best tools it can use in defeating the Mullahs of Iran. Perhaps that's laughable, but there is historical precedent. Remember how all the Soviet dominoes fell (in reverse :-) after the Berlin Wall came down? Freedom really does beget freedom. There's a reason why there are a LOT more democracies in the world today than there were 20 years ago.
I think Iraq was, in part, made an example of. Justifiably so, Iraqi war supporters will say, because of the UN resolutions, defiance of Saddam, etc. Keep in mind that if Saddam hadn't invaded Kuwait in 1990 there's no way we would have been able to justify attacking him now. No way.
The News is not going to give you a lot of the sucesses in Iraq or anywhere for that matter. I don't think it is all politically driven but more in the perception that bad news sells and good news does not. Turn on your local news and you find that out in a hurry.
As far as how I think the war is going. War is bad. People get killed and anyone that never has second thoughts cross their minds are a little off. But there is progress being made. Schools are open, people are working and many other good things. There are areas I wish were going better and yes I blame some of the planners. Hindsight is always easy. I would imagine people felt the same way after WW2 and any major conflict where people die. I still believe that we did the right thing. After all Suddam would have prevented this war many times.