Media: ‘Good News from Iraq, but…’

Friday’s Washington Post had an article about the thousands of Iraqi refugees who are returning to Iraq. The security has improved enough for them to return to their native country, but the journalist focused instead on their fears. The headline says it all – Security is better, but Freedoms are Tempered by Fear (italics mine).

There always has to be a ‘but’ accompanying any positive news. It must be panic time in the media and in Washington now that the Surge has worked. Soon there may be a headline “America Wins in Iraq, but…”

I found a very positive bit way down in the eighth paragraph, “U.N. refugee officials estimate that 45,000 Iraqis returned from Syria last month, while Iraqi officials say 1,000 are arriving each day.” I would call 45,000 people returning to Iraq in one month a huge step toward winning in Iraq. Security may be uncertain, but why did these refugees decide to return in such large numbers? The situation must have improved to the point where they would rather chance it in Iraq than stay in Syria. The Washington Post had to counter by calling the flood of returnees “a tiny fraction of the 2.2 million” who fled since the 2003 invasion.

Why did they leave in the first place? Were they escaping the murderous rampage of US troops, or perhaps the barbaric atrocities committed by al Qaeda in Iraq? Do our troops use children to sneak car bombs through checkpoints then jump out before detonating the car with the children still inside? Do our troops capture children, bake them in an oven, and then feed them to their surprised parents?

Sure, Iraqi infrastructure may be hit and miss as the story points out, but who is working to destroy it, and who has been working to rebuild it? It may be worth pointing out that Saddam’s infrastructure was aging, faulty, or absent to begin with when our troops began working to restore it. Pair that with the insurgents’ sabotage efforts and you can see why the lights don’t always work.

The situation may not be totally secure yet, as success in Iraq will take time. But when the stories are mentioning the early closing times of tea shops instead of hundreds of dead Iraqis at the latest bombing, there is progress being made. Whether the media wants to admit it or not.

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