Just some reading material for the forum.
"They have a saying in the news business," Geraldo Rivera related this
week. "Reporters don't report buildings that don't burn." And with that
introduction, he told a TV audience about the story that is being
systematically denied to our entire nation: the success story of
post-Saddam Iraq. Are we losing some soldiers each week? Yes. Is there
some
frustration in the public about electricity and water service? Yes.
Are some Saddam Hussein loyalists scurrying throughout the land, making
trouble? Yes. Has this opened a window for some terrorist mischief? Yes.
But that's all we hear. No wonder the country is in a mixed mood about
Iraq.
If you hear about the buildings that are not burning, though, it is a
different story indeed.
Rivera is no shill for George W. Bush. But Bush, Condi Rice and Colin
Powell together could not have been as effective as Geraldo was Thursday
night on the Fox News Channel's Hannity and Colmes program.
"When I got to Baghdad, I barely recognized it," he began, comparing his
just-completed trip to two others he made during and just after the
battle
to topple Saddam. "You have over 30,000 Iraqi cops and militiamen
already
on the job. This is four months after major fighting stopped.
"Can you imagine that kind of gearing up in this country? Law and order
is
better; archaeological sites are being preserved; factories, schools are
being guarded."
But what about the secondhand griping that the media have been so
efficiently relating about power, water and other infrastructure?
"To say that Iraq is being rebuilt is not true," answered Rivera. "Iraq
is
being built. There was no infrastructure before; we are doing it. I just
think the good news is being underestimated and underreported."
At this juncture, one must evaluate how to feel about the voices telling
us
only about the bad news in Iraq, whether from the mouths of news anchors
or
Democratic presidential hopefuls.
At best, they are underinformed. At worst, their one-sided assessments
of
post-Saddam Iraq are intentional falsehoods for obvious reasons.
If I hear one more person mock that "Mission Accomplished" banner
beneath
which President Bush thanked a shipload of sailors and Marines a few
months
back, I'm going to spit. That was a reference to the ouster of Saddam's
regime, and that mission was indeed accomplished, apparently to the
great
chagrin of the American left.
No one said what followed would be easy or cheap, and that's why the
dripping-water torture of the cost and casualty stories is so
infuriating.
Remember we pay our soldiers whether they are in Iraq or in Ft Bragg,
North
Carolina.
We should all mourn the loss of every fallen soldier. But context cries
out
to be heard. Our present news media is not performing this task.
As some dare to wonder if this might become a Vietnam-like quagmire,
I'll
remind whoever needs it that most of our 58,000 Vietnam war toll died
between 1966 and 1972, during which we lost an average of about
8,000 per year. That's about 22 per day, every day, for thousands of
days
on end.
Let us hear no more Vietnam comparisons. They do not equate.
What I hope to hear is more truth, even if we have to wrench it from the
mouths of the media and political hacks predisposed to bash the
remarkable
job we are doing every day in what was not so long ago a totalitarian
wasteland.
Local elections are under way across Iraq, Rivera reported. "Where Kurds
and Arabs have been battling for decades, things have been settling
down.
Administrator Paul Bremer is doing a great job."
So does Geraldo think his media colleagues are intentionally painting
with
one side of the brush?
"I'm not into conspiracy theories...there's just more bang for your buck
when you report the GI who got killed rather than the 99 who didn't get
killed, who make friends, who helped schedule elections, who helped
shops
get open for business, who helped traffic flow again.
"The vast majority of Iraqis are very happy to have us there... I would
like to see a bit more balance." This needs to be reported to the
American
Public who are presently being duped. I expect the dominant media
culture
to nitpick Bush, and Democrats to blast him with reckless abandon. But
when
that leads to the willful exclusion of facts that would shine truthful
light on the great work of the American armed forces, that level of
malice
plumbs new depths. Some call it - TREASON"
"They have a saying in the news business," Geraldo Rivera related this
week. "Reporters don't report buildings that don't burn." And with that
introduction, he told a TV audience about the story that is being
systematically denied to our entire nation: the success story of
post-Saddam Iraq. Are we losing some soldiers each week? Yes. Is there
some
frustration in the public about electricity and water service? Yes.
Are some Saddam Hussein loyalists scurrying throughout the land, making
trouble? Yes. Has this opened a window for some terrorist mischief? Yes.
But that's all we hear. No wonder the country is in a mixed mood about
Iraq.
If you hear about the buildings that are not burning, though, it is a
different story indeed.
Rivera is no shill for George W. Bush. But Bush, Condi Rice and Colin
Powell together could not have been as effective as Geraldo was Thursday
night on the Fox News Channel's Hannity and Colmes program.
"When I got to Baghdad, I barely recognized it," he began, comparing his
just-completed trip to two others he made during and just after the
battle
to topple Saddam. "You have over 30,000 Iraqi cops and militiamen
already
on the job. This is four months after major fighting stopped.
"Can you imagine that kind of gearing up in this country? Law and order
is
better; archaeological sites are being preserved; factories, schools are
being guarded."
But what about the secondhand griping that the media have been so
efficiently relating about power, water and other infrastructure?
"To say that Iraq is being rebuilt is not true," answered Rivera. "Iraq
is
being built. There was no infrastructure before; we are doing it. I just
think the good news is being underestimated and underreported."
At this juncture, one must evaluate how to feel about the voices telling
us
only about the bad news in Iraq, whether from the mouths of news anchors
or
Democratic presidential hopefuls.
At best, they are underinformed. At worst, their one-sided assessments
of
post-Saddam Iraq are intentional falsehoods for obvious reasons.
If I hear one more person mock that "Mission Accomplished" banner
beneath
which President Bush thanked a shipload of sailors and Marines a few
months
back, I'm going to spit. That was a reference to the ouster of Saddam's
regime, and that mission was indeed accomplished, apparently to the
great
chagrin of the American left.
No one said what followed would be easy or cheap, and that's why the
dripping-water torture of the cost and casualty stories is so
infuriating.
Remember we pay our soldiers whether they are in Iraq or in Ft Bragg,
North
Carolina.
We should all mourn the loss of every fallen soldier. But context cries
out
to be heard. Our present news media is not performing this task.
As some dare to wonder if this might become a Vietnam-like quagmire,
I'll
remind whoever needs it that most of our 58,000 Vietnam war toll died
between 1966 and 1972, during which we lost an average of about
8,000 per year. That's about 22 per day, every day, for thousands of
days
on end.
Let us hear no more Vietnam comparisons. They do not equate.
What I hope to hear is more truth, even if we have to wrench it from the
mouths of the media and political hacks predisposed to bash the
remarkable
job we are doing every day in what was not so long ago a totalitarian
wasteland.
Local elections are under way across Iraq, Rivera reported. "Where Kurds
and Arabs have been battling for decades, things have been settling
down.
Administrator Paul Bremer is doing a great job."
So does Geraldo think his media colleagues are intentionally painting
with
one side of the brush?
"I'm not into conspiracy theories...there's just more bang for your buck
when you report the GI who got killed rather than the 99 who didn't get
killed, who make friends, who helped schedule elections, who helped
shops
get open for business, who helped traffic flow again.
"The vast majority of Iraqis are very happy to have us there... I would
like to see a bit more balance." This needs to be reported to the
American
Public who are presently being duped. I expect the dominant media
culture
to nitpick Bush, and Democrats to blast him with reckless abandon. But
when
that leads to the willful exclusion of facts that would shine truthful
light on the great work of the American armed forces, that level of
malice
plumbs new depths. Some call it - TREASON"
