Sunday, September 19, 2004
Talking Points Memo: by Joshua Micah Marshall: September 12, 2004 - September 18, 2004 Archives
It's amazing how many people in America are convinced that things are completely going to crap here in Iraq. Especially given all they know is what the news outlets choose to cover.
There are so many things going on over here ... Or even better yet, in terms of stability in many areas, there things that are NOT going on that the news never covers.
There is an old adage in the news that "If it bleeds, it leads." And that certainly seems to be the case here.
You never hear about kids that were never able to go to school because their parents weren't Baath party members are now in school. You don't hear how the 4th of the 3rd Air Defense Artillery Battalion provided school supplies for hundreds of those kids in the Tikrit area.
You do hear about people that have lost minimal public services (water, electricity), but they don't tell you the whole story. How they never had them before, the Army or it's contractors ran the lines, and set it up for them. The reason they are without services now is that insurgents came along behind the Army and blew the stuff up. Depriving their own countrymen, sometimes their own neighbors, of service. You don't hear about units like my cousin's that kept repairing water and electrical lines after insurgents blew the stuff up.
You don't hear about how thousands of Iraqis that weren't able to get decent jobs, because they were Baath party members, now have them.
AND YOU CERTAINLY DON'T HEAR ABOUT the approximately 5 cents a gallon that Iraqis pay for a liter of gas. ... or about 20 cents a gallon. Do you even remember the last time gas was that cheap in America? I barely do. If this is a war about America getting cheap oil, something is terribly wrong, because it obviously hasn't worked.
There are so many things going on over here ... Or even better yet, in terms of stability in many areas, there things that are NOT going on that the news never covers.
There is an old adage in the news that "If it bleeds, it leads." And that certainly seems to be the case here.
You never hear about kids that were never able to go to school because their parents weren't Baath party members are now in school. You don't hear how the 4th of the 3rd Air Defense Artillery Battalion provided school supplies for hundreds of those kids in the Tikrit area.
You do hear about people that have lost minimal public services (water, electricity), but they don't tell you the whole story. How they never had them before, the Army or it's contractors ran the lines, and set it up for them. The reason they are without services now is that insurgents came along behind the Army and blew the stuff up. Depriving their own countrymen, sometimes their own neighbors, of service. You don't hear about units like my cousin's that kept repairing water and electrical lines after insurgents blew the stuff up.
You don't hear about how thousands of Iraqis that weren't able to get decent jobs, because they were Baath party members, now have them.
AND YOU CERTAINLY DON'T HEAR ABOUT the approximately 5 cents a gallon that Iraqis pay for a liter of gas. ... or about 20 cents a gallon. Do you even remember the last time gas was that cheap in America? I barely do. If this is a war about America getting cheap oil, something is terribly wrong, because it obviously hasn't worked.
