Okay boys, I’m starting this one to collect some positive stories, pictures, verifiable statistics, etc. – basically, anything good that’s happening in Iraq now. I know that rangertab posted that letter, and there were a couple of folks who posted complaints that none of the awesome things our troops were doing over there could be proven, and that there’s a chance it’s all just made up. As a cheesetastic ra-ra boy, reading that made me sad, so I thought “fuck this, let’s find this shit out for real.”
How hard could this be? Actually, it’s pretty damn annoying. One of the first search results I got for “positive stories” iraq in Google was this:
It’s a press release from the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs about how he’s trying to encourage newspaper editors to print the positive stories from Iraq. He’s not saying “bury the bad stuff,” he’s saying “please print the good stuff too.” The fact that this particular press release wasn’t to be found on any major media outlets is telling indeed. Here I was thinking the whole time that the so-called “liberal media bias” was a little bit of an exaggeration, but the more I delve into this, the more I realize that it is no exaggeration at all. AT ALL.
WTF? I know for a fact that water treatment plants are being rebuilt and refitted, I know for a fact that hospitals and clinics are being opened or re-opened as the case may be, and I am having the damnedest time finding out actual stories to link to except from weblogs and military news sources. WHY THE HELL IS THIS NOT NEWSWORTHY?
I am updated on a daily basis about the latest body count from the latest car-bomb, but I have to sift through pages of links on Google before I find out that Mosul now has a children’s clinic thanks to our guys over there? YOU MEDIA GUYS ARE A BUNCH OF PRICKS!
To be continued, hopefully not all in upper-case shouting in frustration…
It’s a report of a survey done by the Iraqi gov’t and the UN which confirms the blatantly obvious. My quick lothario recap for those who don’t feel like checking the link: “Living in Iraq sucked major ass during Saddam’s reign.”
There was one tiny gem of a sentence in this CNN report:
“While there has been progress since Saddam Hussein’s fall, “these data depict a very tragic picture of the quality of life,” Iraqi transitional Planning Minister Barham Salih said.”
I think I just heard a book drop. CNN actually took one sentence to give props to our guys over there. I read that and thought “Like what, guys? C’mon, it’s okay… just tell us about one of the good things that our boys accomplished over there…” but I was left high and dry.
Here’s something fresh, but it’s a military source, not a mainstream media outlet, sorry 'bout that:
That’s the 1000th reconstruction project in Iraq that has been completed under the supervision of, or due directly to, the Army corps of Engineers, Gulf Region Division.
Pictures of smiling children, and the happiness of the headmaster are evidently not good enough for anybody. I guess the 1000 number isn’t good enough either. But you can bet your ass that the 1000th car bomb is going to be reported. If it hasn’t been already.
Once more, a military site; but there’s oodles of pictures of our guys replacing generators, providing jobs for the locals, etc., etc., that you would never see in the mainstream media.
All this surfing I’ve done between patients tonight has confirmed pretty much everything I thought about Iraq to begin with. Pre-invasion Iraq was a mess of unbelievable proportions. The UN sanctions literally destroyed the infrastructure because there were no checks put on Saddam to make him provide for his people. All he cared about was his own power, and that’s where the nation’s money went.
Then something counter-intuitive occurred to me: Thank god we went in there, and dammit we should have gone in sooner. If you gave even a single whit about the humanity in the citizens of Iraq, then you would realize that the very worst thing to do to Iraq was to continue the UN sanctions/inspections. It’s just that if we lifted them, then an extremely dangerous and motivated man would have the ability to become an even bigger threat. I silently cursed Bush Sr. tonight. Why oh why oh why did we let that monster Saddam stay in power after Gulf War I? I have seen the pictures of dysentery, the folks gathered around muddy holes for their drinking water, the list goes on and on… All so Saddam could keep his Oil for Food money, and not spend it on these citizens who needed the bare essentials.
I guess I can’t blame the elder Bush for not having perfect foresight, maybe he wasn’t in a good political position to permanently remove Saddam back then… who knows? But I do know one thing: the UN has fucked the Iraqi people. Hard.
I especially like the last part of the article, which I’m going to “BostonBarrister” to you guys here:
[b]Norma Melo has found her own way of honoring her husband, Julian S. Melo, who was killed in a December mess hall bombing in Mosul, Iraq.
He loved being a soldier and traveling to different places, Norma Melo said. He was a fan of music that ranged from reggae to country. He had a soft spot for stray animals and children.
On Monday at the Capitol service, Norma Melo recounted her last conversation with her husband. The day before he died, he told her the children of Mosul were dancing in the streets after listening to music from his MP3 player.
After he died, the family established a memorial fund to benefit the children of Iraq. They delivered the first check for $10,000 to the Iraqi embassy Saturday for a children’s music program.
“I can’t think of a better way to honor him,” she said.[/b]
I don’t care who you are, you gotta admit: that’s awesome.
After a page of links to stories about car bombs (I’m not kidding), I found this article which I would call “very guardedly, slightly positive, still a bit anti-US”.
For those who don’t want to click the clink, I’ll sum up: The AP writer of this article compares a school today against another AP writer who visited the same school ten years ago. The reporter seems to be only semi-rosy about the positive changes, but must begrudgingly acknowledge that things are better now than before.
Reading through the articles like this one, I am struck by what importance the Sunni vs. Shiite tension actually seems to have over there. This is nothing like the US, where our religious affiliations have little to do with our everyday lives… over there it means a great deal. The Shiite sect was discriminated against, arrested for no reason at all, just because of who they were. This would be like getting arrested for being a Catholic. I’m sure the Baathists would have had a field day with a heathen like me… electrocuted testicles, anyone?
Oh NO!!! Another article with smiling children in it… We better not print that one… If we did that, people might think that the Iraq invasion wasn’t such a bad idea after all.
The thing to remember, I think, is that there is no way at all any of this could have happened while Saddam or one of his psychotic sons was still in any kind of power in Iraq.
Yet another bunch of renovations/improvements which would have never been possible without Bush’s order to invade. I just think about how many lives could have been saved from dysentery, malnutrition, and disease if we had done this under Clinton. Damn.
That’s it for now, fellas. It’s about time for me to go, and my internet connection at home is laughable. Anyway, it’s been enlightening for me to all this googling tonight, maybe you thought twice about some stuff too, I don’t know.
Anyway, thanks for checking out the thread… please feel free to add to it or harass me and call me a time-wasting idiot or whatever. I just hope that all y’all have an “I love America” cheeserriffic day!!!
Thank You!!!
(hehe sorry Jeffy, three exclamation points… I couldn’t help myself)
Vroom, Liftismaxmirmismas, go spoil someone elses thread. He clearly stated at the beginning that sure there are bad things going on, but there are also good things and they are under reported. Learn to fucking read.
[quote]hedo wrote:
LIFTICVSMAXIMVS wrote:
“For real”? Gotta wonder why this thread was created…
Are we trying to convince ourselves everything is A-okay?
No to create balance and educate the naive.
[/quote]
Bullshit. The educated understand that the truth involves good and bad. The educated also understand that the rest of the world will judge us based on the overall effect as well as the negatives. How retarded is the basic concept of this thread? Let’s not point out the truth…let’s only try to find as much positive info so that we can make things look better.
The goal should be to understand what is truly happening. If 50 men got killed, admit that 50 men got killed and pray for their families. You can mention every school built and water system engaged, but don’t be so ridiculous and biased as to ignore the fact that 50 men got killed. In the grand scheme of things, I think it is safe to say that on 9/11, not one American gave a damn about schools in Iraq.