Iraq: Gee, Wally--if only the nasty old media wasn't so negative...

Led by people such as Laura Ingraham, the righteous wingers now have a new strategy for winning in Iraq: blame the media.

I am not going to bother to write about the details behind this campaign. Instead, I will make a few choice comments, ask some questions, make a few more choice comments, and present some evidence which makes this new strategy make the claims of WMD like established fact.

The choice comment

The geniuses saying that the media does not ever report the good news from Iraq really want the media to report ONLY good news from Iraq. Wing nuts like Ingraham never want to have bad news reported ever again.

The questions

For the purposes of these questions, assume that the media from now on reports only feel-good stories from Iraq.

• Will the media reports in this country change any of the facts on the ground in Iraq?
• Will media reports provide the physical resources and actual plans that are needed on the ground in Iraq?
• Are positive media reports here going to defeat the insurgency?
• Are positive media reports here going to provide electicity, food, and jobs for Iraqis?
• Are positive media reports going to make up for the appalling lack of planning for Iraq?
  
• Are Iraqis going to see all the media reports here?
• Are positive media reports going to suddenly create a winning strategy that can be applied on the ground in Iraq?

There are plenty of other questions related to these, but the answer to all the questions is not just no but HELL NO.

More choice comments

More positive reports from Iraq will accomplish one thing--increase support for the war here in the U.S. And that is the real objective of the wingers. And it shows yet another part of the Bush administration's SOP. Instead of devising and implementing realistic and viable policy, the Bush administration is all about selling "the message." This applies not just to Iraq, but to everything. The top priorities are getting and keeping popular support and getting and keeping power.

The evidence

First, go back and read the last paragraph of Some belated thoughts on the third anniversary of the Iraq war, in which I discuss the story of Tal Afar. This is a very positive story. It is a story that Bush spent half of his March 20 speech telling. It is a story that was told in detail eight days earlier on that most evil of media shows, "60 Minutes."

Second, go read a report about Iraq that was published on March 8, 2006. Here are some excerpts:

A climate of extreme violence in which people were killed for political and other reasons continued.

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During the year unsettled conditions prevented effective governance in areas of the country, and insurgent and terrorist attacks hampered the government's human rights performance.

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Government military and police forces under government control killed armed fighters or persons planning or carrying out violence against civilian or military targets; according to personal accounts and numerous press reports, these forces caused inadvertent civilian deaths. Treatment of detainees under government authority was deficient in some cases, including killing, torture, and other cruel, inhuman, or degrading abuse [.]

Former regime elements, local and foreign fighters, and terrorists waged guerrilla warfare and a terrorist campaign of violence impacting every aspect of life. Killings, kidnappings, torture, and intimidation were fueled by political grievances and ethnic and religious tensions and were supported by parts of the population.

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Bombings, executions, killings, kidnappings, shootings, and intimidation were a daily occurrence throughout all regions and sectors of society. An illustrative list of these attacks, even a highly selective one, could scarcely reflect the broad dimension of the violence.

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All sectors of society suffered from the continued wave of kidnappings. Kidnappers often killed their victims despite the payment of ransom. The widespread nature of this phenomenon precluded reliable statistics.

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Throughout the year terrorists systematically damaged and destroyed key infrastructure. Principally, but not exclusively in the central region of the country, sabotage to oil, electricity, and transportation lines reduced the movement and availability of critical services and goods to the population.

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Extremists, including terrorist groups and militia members, targeted many individuals because of their religious orientation, and very conservative elements of society targeted others because of their secular leanings. Many also were victims of the general lawlessness that permitted insurgents and criminal gangs, as well as those in police uniform to victimize citizens with impunity. In addition to kidnapping, individuals were the victims of harassment, intimidation, and murder. Some Christians in Basrah reportedly were forced to pay protection for their personal welfare. Women and girls reportedly often were threatened for not wearing the traditional headscarf (hijab), assaulted with acid for noncompliance, and sometimes killed for refusing to cover their heads or for wearing western-style clothing. Some women were reportedly denied employment and educational opportunities because they were non-Muslim or did not present themselves as sufficiently conservative.

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Large-scale financial as well as political, personal corruption in the government remained a severe problem. The Commission on Public Integrity (CPI) head Radhi Hamza al-Radhi told the press in March that corruption within the government was widespread and had worsened[.]

(emphasis added). This report did not come from some freedom-hating, heathen, liberal media outlet. No, the report came from the Bush administration its ownself, specifically from the State Department.

But hey, if only the media would not report any of these facts, everything would be all right.

Yeah, right.