Wednesday, March 15, 2006
Getting The Rest of The Iraq Story
Wondering if you are getting both sides of the story in Iraq ? Try this article by Richard Nadler in NRO . It's full of interesting facts presented by some smart articulate ex- military folks.
You can learn about things like increases in electrical supply, doubling of oil revenues, enormous increases in cell phones, cars, and satellite TVs; as well as a 60 percent decline of infant mortality and improved access to schooling and medical care. All happening now in post-Saddam Iraq and discussed by Lt. Indyk, returned from a tour in Iraq.
And there's former Corporal Gibson talking about how, in 6 months in 2005, the number of civilian tips informing on insurgents increased from 483 to 4,700, as numerous Sunni tribes declared outright war on al Qaeda. In Gibson's words - "The insurgency in Iraq is being dismantled by the equivalent of a Tips hotline."
A key point about modern information warfare is made by former Marine Sergeant and combat reporter J. D. Johannes - "Everyone knows that the history of war is written by the victors. But the war in Iraq has shattered that truism. In Iraq, history is being written by the losers. Baathist kidnappers and jihadist bombers are planning their operations not to win the war in Iraq, but to win it in America. To that end, they are assessing what American news organizations are willing to cover, and what American reporters are willing to risk. As an immediate result, many of the feeds on the nightly news are coming from Arabic sources that are either non-professional in their journalistic standards or hostile to American policy aims. As a long-term result, the American public is broadly misinformed on a war that Coalition arms and Iraqi democrats are, in fact, winning."
Read the article. If you want to see and hear more from these men, check this post to Watch Some TV and Feel Really Good.
You can learn about things like increases in electrical supply, doubling of oil revenues, enormous increases in cell phones, cars, and satellite TVs; as well as a 60 percent decline of infant mortality and improved access to schooling and medical care. All happening now in post-Saddam Iraq and discussed by Lt. Indyk, returned from a tour in Iraq.
And there's former Corporal Gibson talking about how, in 6 months in 2005, the number of civilian tips informing on insurgents increased from 483 to 4,700, as numerous Sunni tribes declared outright war on al Qaeda. In Gibson's words - "The insurgency in Iraq is being dismantled by the equivalent of a Tips hotline."
A key point about modern information warfare is made by former Marine Sergeant and combat reporter J. D. Johannes - "Everyone knows that the history of war is written by the victors. But the war in Iraq has shattered that truism. In Iraq, history is being written by the losers. Baathist kidnappers and jihadist bombers are planning their operations not to win the war in Iraq, but to win it in America. To that end, they are assessing what American news organizations are willing to cover, and what American reporters are willing to risk. As an immediate result, many of the feeds on the nightly news are coming from Arabic sources that are either non-professional in their journalistic standards or hostile to American policy aims. As a long-term result, the American public is broadly misinformed on a war that Coalition arms and Iraqi democrats are, in fact, winning."
Read the article. If you want to see and hear more from these men, check this post to Watch Some TV and Feel Really Good.
