All the Bad News That’s Fit to Print

The 13th Marine Expeditionary Unit left Iraq earlier today. I know because I got an email from Mike Roberts. He has a new return address aboard the USS Bonhomme Richard, one of the ships that will bring them home. Mike flies AV8B Harrier jets and would have been among the last from the MEU to leave Anbar province. You might think that given all the debate about the relative significance of their departure, news of the actual event would be all over the wires. I can’t find it. I suppose I shouldn’t be surprised. The Dallas Morning News features a front page article today on how bad life is for ordinary citizens in Baghdad. They lead with the story of a 28 year old man who was wounded by a car bomb and is now terrified of traffic jams. He has traveled the region seeking treatment. The article doesn’t mention that all the hospitals in the region have been rebuilt and equipped by Americans. It does quote Mr. Bush as saying that “Many schools and markets are reopening” but only to challenge the truth of that. The article notes that electricity is available only a few hours a day in some neighborhoods and tap water is often unfit to drink. That has been reported more times than I can count but you will have to go to the pentagon web site to find news of new water plants, school renovations, or thriving shops in areas with improving security. I rarely see any of that in the traditional media. As with today’s article, most of the news pieces I see are written “from wire reports.” I presume that means reporters on the scene are still restricted pretty much to their hotels or the safety of the green zone. I’m left to wonder what makes them think they know what’s really happening in the more dangerous neighborhoods. One thing I would really like to know is what has happened to the millions of Iraqis who have been driven from their homes. The estimate I usually see is 2 million have left Iraq, mostly to Jordan and Syria, and an equal number displaced inside the country. I don’t get the impression anybody has reliable data but surely there are a lot of them. Where are they? Why aren’t our television screens filled with scenes of pathetic children in squalid camps and roads jammed with refugees carrying all their belongings? It wouldn’t be like the fourth estate to pass up some really tragic imagery. They’ve got to be somewhere. Am I the only one who thinks something is missing here? That 2200 sailors and marines of the 13th MEU are returning to their base is news. That they don’t need to be replaced is unequivocally good news. I expect a lot more of that in coming months as Iraqi forces take more and more responsibility for their own internal security. I don’t expect much coverage. The article from today’s DMN continues on the inside where a full page is devoted to Iraq, most of it to point by point rebuttal of recent suggestions there are signs of progress. It’s part of a relentless propaganda campaign to paint a picture of failure. Of course Iraq isn’t a failure, not yet. Failure would be withdrawing before Iraqis can stand on their own. That isn’t going to happen on Mr. Bush’s watch and I don’t think it will happen under his successor. For now many in the media want a catastrophe and they will do everything they can to produce one. If they don’t get it they will make one up. In the meantime the Iraqi army continues to gel and the local if not national police get stronger. By this time next year I expect we will see a much more manageable situation there. Somehow it will still be a failure and it will all be George Bush’s fault.