Wednesday, November 12, 2003
Good News, Bad News
If it bleeds, it leads. That’s the watchword with news organizations. At least, the successful ones. The ones that want to get and keep my attention, morbid, voyeuristic dog that I am.
Of course, that doesn’t please the Bush Administration, Andrew Sullivan (who I like a lot, actually), the neocons, or any of the rest of the Bush supporters, or anyone else who has anything vital invested in our success here in Iraq.
So it seems the Bush Administration and the SecDef have been complaining about Iraq coverage being negative. All the disasters lead, but news about all the good things we’re doing, and all the progress that’s being made here, never sees the light of day.
What can I tell you?
All the bad news is true, and more. Things are worse than it looks on TV. We still run into
IEDs, here in Ramadi, usually several times a day. Fortunately, though, the vast majority
of them either don't go off, or cause little damage to troops or equipment, or in some cases, go off prematurely, making unwitting martyrs out of their creators, and wrapping their lifeless corpses around neighborhood tree trunks and light poles like so many dripping yellow ribbons.
But none of that makes the news. When a vehicle is destroyed, it doesn't make the
news. I've had several vehicles shot or blasted out from under soldiers.
I've had one vehicle shot up under me. Wounded soldiers who don't die
don't make the news unless someone else dies in the same incident. Iraqis we kill in firefights don't make the news. Iraqis killed or captured by the Iraqi Police don't make the news.
This really is a counterguerrilla fight here. I was flabbergasted early on
in the occupation, when the Administration was trying very hard NOT to characterize
things as a guerrilla war—or more precisely, a counterinsurgency. It is a CLASSIC counterinsurgency.
At the same time, though, all the positive developments--the ones the
Administration is complaining don't get news coverage--those are just as true
and just as real. And in the struggle to bring this country out of its near
coma, they will prove to be just as important.
Speaking only of the 1-124th's area of operations-the central sector of
the city of Ramadi, I can attest to the following:
* We renovated the Ar Ramadi General Hospital
* We renovated the Ar Ramadi Women and Children's Hospital
*We assisted local officials in recruiting, hiring, and paying over
2,000 police officers, highway patrolmen, and security guards.
*We provided our own soldiers-soldiers who are trained police officers
in the civilian world-to run a police academy to train the recruits. That's
really a big deal, because we were introducing these kids-and many of them
were 15 or 16 years old-to CONCEPTS like 'due process of law,' 'rights of
the accused,' and having a police force that exists to protect and to serve
the community, rather than the Ba'ath party. That's a huge paradigm shift.
*We provided weapons and uniforms, right down to shoes, for all 2,000
police officers. (THAT was a major logistical project.)
* We turned over an entire warehouse of medical supplies to the local
medical community.
* (The regional minister of health repayed us by using his ambulances
to smuggle weapons in from Syria.)
*We have renovated, and are in the process of renovating, several
schools, and provide their students with school supplies. Working on air
conditioning, which is almost unheard of for Iraqi schoolchildren. If you or
your friends are interested in sponsoring school supplies for a school, let
me know. We have an outreach program to do that, too. Our efforts are not
limited to what the government wants to spend. We are preparing what we hope
will be school supply kits for 300 children, and hope to expand from there.)
* Our own doctors have provided medical care to many Iraqis, free of
charge of any kind.
* We are working with the mayor of Ramadi to start a graffiti eradication
program, and are in the process of providing him with $10,000 worth of
paint.
*I've got orders to pick up a truck load of soccer balls to deliver to
Iraqi children.
*We are renovating selected mosques-three of them for now, with more to
follow. These are community centers for the Iraqis-much more so than most
Americans can appreciate.
*We have secured convoys full of the new Iraqi currency and have worked
with banks to exchange the new currency for the old Saddam notes.
*We have issued tens of thousands of pension checks at the payee center
at one of the banks very near our compound.
All of this is true, too. There are other projects which I don't even
know about. We have a full time Civil Affairs team which runs out every day
to talk to students and faculty at the University, to sit down with
imams-we've even developed a dialogue with the local Wahabbis-to work on
planning an election which we will have here someday.
All that is true. And all of that happens well under the media radar screen.
Those who are critical of the Administration have plenty of ammunition.
The Administration's defenders have plenty of ammunition of their own, too.
and both camps can be right in their own way, and are. Iraq—like most realities-- is bigger than the pages of any newspaper. And reality is bigger than anybody’s spin machine.
Of course, that doesn’t please the Bush Administration, Andrew Sullivan (who I like a lot, actually), the neocons, or any of the rest of the Bush supporters, or anyone else who has anything vital invested in our success here in Iraq.
So it seems the Bush Administration and the SecDef have been complaining about Iraq coverage being negative. All the disasters lead, but news about all the good things we’re doing, and all the progress that’s being made here, never sees the light of day.
What can I tell you?
All the bad news is true, and more. Things are worse than it looks on TV. We still run into
IEDs, here in Ramadi, usually several times a day. Fortunately, though, the vast majority
of them either don't go off, or cause little damage to troops or equipment, or in some cases, go off prematurely, making unwitting martyrs out of their creators, and wrapping their lifeless corpses around neighborhood tree trunks and light poles like so many dripping yellow ribbons.
But none of that makes the news. When a vehicle is destroyed, it doesn't make the
news. I've had several vehicles shot or blasted out from under soldiers.
I've had one vehicle shot up under me. Wounded soldiers who don't die
don't make the news unless someone else dies in the same incident. Iraqis we kill in firefights don't make the news. Iraqis killed or captured by the Iraqi Police don't make the news.
This really is a counterguerrilla fight here. I was flabbergasted early on
in the occupation, when the Administration was trying very hard NOT to characterize
things as a guerrilla war—or more precisely, a counterinsurgency. It is a CLASSIC counterinsurgency.
At the same time, though, all the positive developments--the ones the
Administration is complaining don't get news coverage--those are just as true
and just as real. And in the struggle to bring this country out of its near
coma, they will prove to be just as important.
Speaking only of the 1-124th's area of operations-the central sector of
the city of Ramadi, I can attest to the following:
* We renovated the Ar Ramadi General Hospital
* We renovated the Ar Ramadi Women and Children's Hospital
*We assisted local officials in recruiting, hiring, and paying over
2,000 police officers, highway patrolmen, and security guards.
*We provided our own soldiers-soldiers who are trained police officers
in the civilian world-to run a police academy to train the recruits. That's
really a big deal, because we were introducing these kids-and many of them
were 15 or 16 years old-to CONCEPTS like 'due process of law,' 'rights of
the accused,' and having a police force that exists to protect and to serve
the community, rather than the Ba'ath party. That's a huge paradigm shift.
*We provided weapons and uniforms, right down to shoes, for all 2,000
police officers. (THAT was a major logistical project.)
* We turned over an entire warehouse of medical supplies to the local
medical community.
* (The regional minister of health repayed us by using his ambulances
to smuggle weapons in from Syria.)
*We have renovated, and are in the process of renovating, several
schools, and provide their students with school supplies. Working on air
conditioning, which is almost unheard of for Iraqi schoolchildren. If you or
your friends are interested in sponsoring school supplies for a school, let
me know. We have an outreach program to do that, too. Our efforts are not
limited to what the government wants to spend. We are preparing what we hope
will be school supply kits for 300 children, and hope to expand from there.)
* Our own doctors have provided medical care to many Iraqis, free of
charge of any kind.
* We are working with the mayor of Ramadi to start a graffiti eradication
program, and are in the process of providing him with $10,000 worth of
paint.
*I've got orders to pick up a truck load of soccer balls to deliver to
Iraqi children.
*We are renovating selected mosques-three of them for now, with more to
follow. These are community centers for the Iraqis-much more so than most
Americans can appreciate.
*We have secured convoys full of the new Iraqi currency and have worked
with banks to exchange the new currency for the old Saddam notes.
*We have issued tens of thousands of pension checks at the payee center
at one of the banks very near our compound.
All of this is true, too. There are other projects which I don't even
know about. We have a full time Civil Affairs team which runs out every day
to talk to students and faculty at the University, to sit down with
imams-we've even developed a dialogue with the local Wahabbis-to work on
planning an election which we will have here someday.
All that is true. And all of that happens well under the media radar screen.
Those who are critical of the Administration have plenty of ammunition.
The Administration's defenders have plenty of ammunition of their own, too.
and both camps can be right in their own way, and are. Iraq—like most realities-- is bigger than the pages of any newspaper. And reality is bigger than anybody’s spin machine.
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