Roadside and suicide bombings are slowing down in Iraq. A Google news search has the most recent report of an attack being more than three days ago. More and more we see that the terrorists are not well regarded in Baghdad. Strategy Page explains.
IRAQ: Fiction Outsells Non-Fiction
March 17, 2005: Iraqi popular opinion has turned against terrorism in a big way. Apparently the key event was the revelation that Osama bin Laden had appointed Abu Musab al Zarqawi as "Emir" (leader) of al Qaeda efforts in Iraq and commanded him to go forth and kill big-time. But as suicide bombing attacks increasingly failed to reach American targets, and killed Iraqis instead, it appeared that a Saudi (bin Laden) was telling a Jordanian (Zarqawi) to kill Iraqis. This attitude never made headlines, but it slowly spread among Sunni Arab Iraqis over the last year. Sunni Arab areas where were most of the violence was, particularly after Shia Arab demagogue Moqtada Sadr stopped instigating violence (because he found that he had much less popular support than he believed). Once the Sunni Arabs turned against terrorism, the terrorists found themselves operating in an increasingly hostile environment.
A big story that the media missed was that American troops operating outside the fortified camps (like the Green Zone) were a lot closer to what was going on than your average reporter (who doesn't get out much because of the danger). The combat troops, and many of the non-combat troops, deal with the danger, and Iraqis, on a daily basis. The troops saw the change in attitude among Iraqis. They also saw, in neighborhood after neighborhood, the sharp decline in attacks on coalition and Iraqi forces. They knew the reason for this was the ongoing reconstruction work (mainly supervised by coalition troops) and terror attacks that killed mostly Iraqis. The foreign media appeared to be describing a place that sort of looked like Iraq, but wasn't. Because of the growing availability of email in Iraq, for Iraqis and foreign troops, more people around the world are able to get unfiltered (by journalists) reports from inside Iraq. This has left recipients of these emails wondering what's going on with the reporters. It's simple; fiction always outsells non-fiction.
I wondered when this would start to leak out. I had a preview of this a few months ago when one of my kids was doing a tour in Fallujah. She repeatedly reported to us that the media had it wrong - big time, wrong.
Not only were they not reporting the great things that were being done for and by the Iraqi people, the MSM refused to leave the Green Zone and would not report anything that was pro-Iraqi, pro-Western, or pro-democracy. It just wasn't being allowed by the MSM.
She further stated that when there was an incident that the troops were frequently bombarded with praise and regrets for what had happened to the American troops who were hurt or killed. The Iraqis would volunteer to work in areas where there was a high chance of additional attacks to pull out wounded or dead Americans even though we kept telling them to stay the hell away because they didn't have any body armour.
My daughter left a 2 year-old with us that was the focus of her life, yet she cried when she left Iraq because she said she never felt more important, more appreciated, and more amazed to be part of something so great. The progress they made while she was there was amazing and she wanted us to know that even if she was killed over there (that almost happened three times - two mortar attacks and she drove a Hummer over an IED that blew her out of the vehicle) it was the most worthwhile thing she had ever done with her life.
She said the world was trying to ignore this because the rest of the world was on the take when it came to Iraq and hated to see a good thing end, but she was convinced word would get out. You can't keep good things from becoming known and Iraq is a great thing.
Or did you think what's happening elsewhere in the Middle East is an accident?
Posted by: Clint Lovell | March 17, 2005 at 07:50 PM
"...even if she was killed over there... it was the most worthwhile thing she had ever done with her life."
You and she should be very proud. It becomes more and more evident that she and her comrades have been making the world into a better, safer place.
Posted by: Tom Bowler | March 18, 2005 at 06:24 AM