We all know why the MSM has let Iraq fall off the pages….because the place provides no news. Peace has come to that country and peace provides no blaring headlines of blame on Bush and company. But a few pieces sneak in and today Dexter Filkins writes in the New York Times that the country he knew in 2006 is now vastly different:
BAGHDAD — At first, I didn’t recognize the place.
On Karada Mariam, a street that runs over the Tigris River toward the Green Zone, the Serwan and the Zamboor, two kebab places blown up by suicide bombers in 2006, were crammed with customers. Farther up the street was Pizza Napoli, the Italian place shut down in 2006; it, too, was open for business. And I’d forgotten altogether about Abu Nashwan’s Wine Shop, boarded up when the black-suited militiamen of the Mahdi Army had threatened to kill its owners. There it was, flung open to the world.
Two years ago, when I last stayed in Baghdad, Karada Mariam was like the whole of the city: shuttered, shattered, broken and dead.
Abu Nawas Park — I didn’t recognize that, either. By the time I had left the country in August 2006, the two-mile stretch of riverside park was a grim, spooky, deserted place, a symbol for the dying city that Baghdad had become.
These days, the same park is filled with people: families with children, women in jeans, women walking alone. Even the nighttime, when Iraqis used to cower inside their homes, no longer scares them. I can hear their laughter wafting from the park. At sundown the other day, I had to weave my way through perhaps 2,000 people. It was an astonishing, beautiful scene — impossible, incomprehensible, only months ago.
When I left Baghdad two years ago, the nation’s social fabric seemed too shredded to ever come together again. The very worst had lost its power to shock. To return now is to be jarred in the oddest way possible: by the normal, by the pleasant, even by hope.
Being a NYT’s writer he just has to add the caveat that this could, just might, be a fleeting scene of peace because it all could fall to hell in a handbasket. He also has to print complete falsehoods like this one:
The Awakening, a poetic name for paying former Sunni insurgents not to kill Americans or Iraqis
Well, guess we can’t expect the liberal MSM to just fall over and capitulate in defeat…but this will do.
Of course if we listen to the health and science editors at Reuters we would think the only reason Iraq is now peaceful is because of ethnic cleansing. Yes, the health and science editors.
Anyways, just think, if the country had listened to Obama and the Democrats two years ago the place WOULD be a vastly different place then it is today. It would have been another killing fields.
But thankfully Bush was in the White House, and he listened to the Generals and people like McCain who said a new strategy TO WIN must be put in place. And now we get article like this one.
Time to admit you were wrong Obama?
See author page
In order for Obama to win the election, he has to prove that everything is wrong with the US. Then he can “fix” the problem. If he doesn’t have problems to fix, then there’s no reason to vote for him. The only thing I’ve heard coming out of his mouth is that this country is a complete train wreck and he’s going to fix the problems. Can you imagine having someone like Obama directing the current financial crisis? Balancing your family checkbook and the surplus in his presidential campaign aren’t what I’d call solid experience in dealing with complex financial issues. I’m a Hillary Democrat and I am NOT voting for Obama. http://mespace.wordpress.com/
And what does Obama tkink of all this?
Watch this excellent video:
FLIP-FLOP
http://www.antagoniste.net/?p=3755
Yes, the place truly is unrecognizable:
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2008/09/080919074830.htm
Doug,
Nobody said it was perfect, but it his sure a hell of a lot better than it was recently and even before the war. Why are you such a damn leftie pessimist?
“A new and better nation is growing legs. What’s left is messy politics that likely will be punctuated by low-level violence and the occasional spectacular attack. Yet, the will of the Iraqi people has changed, and the Iraqi military has dramatically improved. Now it’s time to rebuild the country, and create a pluralistic, stable and peaceful Iraq. That will be long, hard work. But by my estimation, the Iraq War is over. We won. Which means the Iraqi people won”. (Michael Yon, on July 4th, 2008)
N.B.: Michael Yon is the author of: Moment Of Thruth in Iraq
You can’t expect a leftist to understand or believe anything. They are so brainwashed they may as well be dead. I live to love life, democrats live to complain about life.
By the way, did you know Slow Joe Biden was once a coal miner. He told the story in 1988 and had to drop out of the campaign, yesterday he told the same story (lie) to the UMWA in Southwest Va. The same story he stole from someone and claimed as his own. Lots of PO’d miners after his scalp.
What a team these two losers! Obama lying and flip flopping all the time and not knowing how many states the USA have… and Biden putting his foot in his mouth once every two days. How can somebody vote for this ticket without being completely insane?
“Being a NYT’s writer he just has to add the caveat that this could, just might, be a fleeting scene of peace because it all could fall to hell in a handbasket.”
Oh, I could see that happening. Of course, only if Obama gets in the White House.
“What a team these two losers!”
Those debates should be something special, huh? Given Obama’s recently yelling at that old woman for asking him a question, I almost expect him to have a meltdown at the podium the second McCain criticizes him. As for Biden, I really can’t be sure anymore if he’s really as stupid as he comes off, or if he’s trying to lure Palin into a false sense of security.
Craig accidently posted in the wrong thread… see his video posts on the economy here.
Doug makes a great point. American forces should stop withdrawing until the lights are on longer in all of Baghdad.
Why am I not surprised that Doug finds some bad news to highlight?
I imagine he’s still worried that the NAZIS are on the comeback in Germany too!