some insight

[SkyDekker 1,465]

This Article may give some insight into why the Iraqi population isn't as happy with the US occupation as some thought they would be.

There clearly are some very common Iraqis who don't think they are currently better off than they were before the invasion.

[Tonto 1]

Yup. It's a fuck-up for everyone.

t

It's the year of the Pig.

[airdvr 210]

As you can see from these photos not everyone is unhappy. You can always find someone who's not happy...just ask a Kerry supporter

Please don't dent the planet.

Destinations by Roxanne

[SkyDekker 1,465]

Quote

As you can see from these photos not everyone is unhappy. You can always find someone who's not happy...just ask a Kerry supporter

And I am sure there are very many pictures of happy people, smiling under Saddam.....

Fact remains that child malnutrition has doubled. That will piss people off who live in those conditions, whether we like it or not. They will be looking for some one to blame....

[airdvr 210]

Some of you are buying into the media's portrayal of this war. Reality is somewhere in the middle.

Quote

There are two Iraqs.

The one we more often get to see and read about is a dangerous place, full of exploding cars, kidnapped foreigners and deadly ambushes. The reconstruction is proceeding at a snail's pace, frustration boils over and tensions - political, ethnic, religious - crackle in the air like static electricity before a storm.

The other Iraq is a once prosperous and promising country of twenty-four million people, slowly recovering from physical and moral devastation of totalitarian rule. It's a country whose people are slowly beginning to stand on their own feet, grasp the opportunities undreamed of only two years ago, and dream of catching up on three decades of lost time. Recently, Annie Sweeney of the "Chicago Sun-Times" had a chance to travel off the beaten media track and visit this exotic country. Her impressions bear quoting at length:

"On a Saturday afternoon in Iraq, between Baghdad and Camp Anaconda, the countryside looks a little like Wisconsin. There are farmers tilling fields and women walking on roads. Freight trains and major highways. This wasn't exactly what I expected when I left for the war-ravaged country the first week of September. And initially, it made me feel lousy.

"Here in Chicago I tend to cover breaking crime stories where the action is intense -- grieving victims, burned-out buildings, angry neighbors.
I expected this type of human drama in Iraq, and apparently others did, too. When I came back after three weeks, all everybody wanted to know was how scared I was.

"Iraq was hot and smelly. It was dirty and dusty. Mortars sometimes boomed in the distance. But I can't describe it as scary. I didn't see the hard-core stuff, and a lot of soldiers who live and work there don't, either.

"That's not to say the kidnappings, bombings and airstrikes from U.S. planes aren't wreaking havoc on both Iraqis and American troops. It's just there's another side -- a side where the ebb and flow of the day-to-day is so normal, it's almost jarring

http://chrenkoff.blogspot.com/2004/10/good-news-from-iraq-part-13.html

Please don't dent the planet.

Destinations by Roxanne

[ScubaSteve 0]

This also makes sense:
Part 1: http://www.democracy-project.com/archives/000414.html

Part 2:http://www.democracy-project.com/archives/000423.html

[weavermc 0]

Wow,
I have an idea for a poll, ask any soldier, sailor, marine or airmen that is out on the street to tell you if they think the media coverage of Iraq is accurate. I can guarantee what you will find.

I sit here in Baghdad working with soldiers who have been in and out of Baghdad's notorious slum SADR CITY. Since April when we lost a lot of soldiers to the Mahdi Army ambush and the subsequent fighting, we have made great strides. THere is a cease-fire in place, we provide humanitarian assistance, and are spending millions of dollars to do what Saddam never did: rebuild their power infrastructure, water system and sewage systems. Have you seen this in the papers?

How about the soldiers that are guarding powerplants around Baghdad to stop insurgents from blowing them up? I missed that article.

Oh, wait, how about the one were our doctors went to all their clinics to donate medial books lost during looting and then gave hands-on teaching to show them what they were never allowed to learn under Saddam? or was that lost in the classified section?

I wont go on, but i'll just remind you that the media has an agenda. If they can find a story with SOME truth that will make people say "OMG!" then they sell papers... if its boring, and shows that we are making progress... they'll skip it.

I have lost friends here, and many friends have been wounded. I refuse to let people believe that the media is telling you what is gonig on here.

okay, my 2 cents is up
Mark

[SkyDekker 1,465]

yeah yeah, the liberal stupid media, blah, blah, blah. Biased, not a full picture etc etc. Yeah, most people with an IQ above 100 know this. Those below that level are too stupid to understand anything anyways.

Off course soldiers are doing great stuff, advances have been made in Iraq, nobody really disputes that. FACT remains that your soldiers were not hailed with bouquets of flowers and open arms as was predicted by your administration.

Now, obviously, that leads to questions as to why that is the case. This article on a study might give some insight into that. Might give a small piece of a much bigger puzzle.

[Michele 1]

(Airdvr, I guarantee the person at the dentist's office is NOT happy. Tolerant, perhaps, but not happy.



Just thought I'd add that observation...)


Ciels-
Michele

~Do Angels keep the dreams we seek
While our hearts lie bleeding?~

[billvon 3,075]

>I have an idea for a poll, ask any soldier, sailor, marine or airmen
>that is out on the street to tell you if they think the media coverage of
> Iraq is accurate. I can guarantee what you will find.

Yep. Per a friend of mine (who just got back from a six-month stint as a forward air traffic controller) some is better than what the media says, some is worse. He said the amount of damage done to the country can't be conveyed by pictures, but that there were a lot of people there who were fairly happy. There was an incredible amount of hatred there towards the US, primarily because of how they see us. The more 'civilian' types (oil workers, security people, even the military logistics people) live in armed fortresses, where guards keep the Iraqi 'rabble' away from the US 'royalty.' The other people they see are US ground troops, who shoot people pretty often. Some Iraqis walk around with white flags hoping that will keep them from getting shot.

While he was there (in a protected area, surrounded by fences and berms) he was shelled twice; once while he was in a glass-fronted office. The mortar round missed the area by about 10 feet and landed in the far side of a berm. Had it landed any closer, everyone in the office would have been cut to ribbons. He was lucky.

[PhillyKev 0]

And another biased source, the Norwegian Red Cross, just released a report that malnutrition among children jumped from 4.5% prior to the US invasion to 7.7% currently.

[kallend 2,106]

Quote

As you can see from these photos not everyone is unhappy. You can always find someone who's not happy...just ask a Kerry supporter

I am reminded of the photos of smiling Londoners during the Blitz of 1940 (attached). I suppose when you survived the night it was worth smiling.

...

The only sure way to survive a canopy collision is not to have one.

[billvon 3,075]

Yet another horribly biased liberal source - the Center for Strategic and International Studies - released a similar report today. Some excerpts:
---------------------------
Iraq’s health care system has rapidly declined in the last few months, and Iraqis are losing confidence that the approaching elections will be free and fair, according to an updated CSIS report . . .The report also found that efforts to rebuild Iraq’s economy, establish security, strengthen governance and provide services remain stalled.
----------------------------
Where's the Iraqi Minister of Information when you need him? We need an unbiased source acceptable to the pro-war faction! "Iraq is perfectly peaceful at this time; there are no problems with insurgents, security, or infrastructure."

[juanesky 0]

Kallend is that you on the second row, second from left to right?.

"According to some of the conservatives here, it sounds like it's fine to beat your wide - as long as she had it coming." -Billvon

[juanesky 0]

Quote

yeah yeah, the liberal stupid media, blah, blah, blah. Biased, not a full picture etc etc. Yeah, most people with an IQ above 100 know this. Those below that level are too stupid to understand anything anyways.

Off course soldiers are doing great stuff, advances have been made in Iraq, nobody really disputes that. FACT remains that your soldiers were not hailed with bouquets of flowers and open arms as was predicted by your administration.

Now, obviously, that leads to questions as to why that is the case. This article on a study might give some insight into that. Might give a small piece of a much bigger puzzle.

So, when they came (Coalition) into Baghdad they were not? It seems that Saddam's regime got little support in the battle when in direct confrontation...Remember the celebrations about the tumbling of SH's statue?

"According to some of the conservatives here, it sounds like it's fine to beat your wide - as long as she had it coming." -Billvon

[AdD 1]

Quote

THere is a cease-fire in place, we provide humanitarian assistance, and are spending millions of dollars to do what Saddam never did: rebuild their power infrastructure, water system and sewage systems. Have you seen this in the papers?

Now honestly, you can't blame Saddam for not rebuilding the infrastructure (after the US bombed those devilish water treatment plants), the US used its veto to stop a lot of those reconstruction contracts American companies have now so helpfully accepted. Good old sanctions of mass destruction...

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