The Main Stream Media (MSM) doesn’t want you to know what’s really going on in Iraq. I know, that’s not exactly breaking news, but most recent reporting showing up in the big newspapers and TV on the Iraqi Maliki government‘s encounter with the Mahdi Army fighters of Muqtada al-Sadr is on the order of “All is lost!”, “Total Failure”, “More Incompetence From Iraq’s Army” bleatings. And that was on day two of a major campaign. Geez, the current crop of “journalists” would have shat their britches if they’d been the ones covering D-Day in WWII. The new Iraq War aggregator, Iraq Status Report, has the skinny:

LESS THAN 48 HOURS AFTER Iraqi security forces began their campaign against militant Shia factions in Basra, the media had already declared the operations a failure. The operations, which were initiated on March 25, were designed to quell rogue factions of Muqtada al-Sadr’s Mahdi Army. In covering the fighting, the press displayed its previously seen penchant for quickly throwing in the towel when a military operation does not instantaneously meet its goals.

Of course, the expectation of immediate success for an operation aimed at clearing densely-populated urban terrain is highly unrealistic. Recent history in Iraq shows this: it took months before Coalition efforts to clear and hold Baghdad showed progress, and even today only 75 percent of the capital city is considered fully secured. Last year the media declared the surge a failure long before the full contingent of forces was deployed, yet the press did not learn from its mistakes. Two popular myths have developed about the Basra fighting: that it constituted a complete failure for the Iraqi security forces, and that it resulted in a major political embarrassment for Iraqi prime minister Nouri al-Maliki.

According to this report, the MSM declared the Sadr instigated cease fire to be a sign of failure of the Maliki government, that Sadr was the victor in this conflict. Well, not so fast there newsboys and girls:

But the fact is that the Maliki government did not agree to the nine-point terms for a truce that Sadr issued, nor did it sue for peace or promise that operations would cease. Instead the Iraqi government called Sadr’s order for his fighters to pull off the streets a “positive step,” and insisted that operations would continue. “The armed groups who refuse al Sadr’s announcement and the pardon we offered will be targets, especially those in possession of heavy weapons,” Maliki said, referring to the ten-day amnesty period for militias to turn in heavy and medium weapons. “Security operations in Basra will continue to stop all the terrorist and criminal activities along with the organized gangs targeting people.”

In his Senate hearing today, General David Petraus laid out some truths that won’t be going down very well with the so-called “progressives” in our midst:

The top U.S. commander in Iraq told Congress Tuesday that hard-won gains in the war zone are too fragile to promise any troop pullouts beyond this summer, holding his ground against impatient Democrats and refusing to commit to more withdrawals before President Bush leaves office in January.

And that brings us up to the last of the Presidential candidates and his comments after his Senate encounter with the General: Of course, ol’ Barack is suggesting that we must talk with Iran, Sadr’s sponsor, to fix the “mess”.

Yeah Barack, let’s get all chummy with the Iranian whack-a-doodle that just announced that they are bringing online another 6,000 centrifuges. Blah, blah, blah — just what the Democrats do best — flap their yaps!

Technorati Tags: Maliki government, Muqtada al-Sadr, Iraq Status Report, Mahdi Army, General David Petraus

This entry was posted on Tuesday, April 8th, 2008 at 8:30 pm and is filed under Decision '08, Iraq War, Media Doin' It Wrong. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.  |   Print This Post  |   Email This Post

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