Iraq

As for Iraq: Fifteen of eighteen provinces in Iraq are prepared to hold free and open elections. This came from the Prime Minister of Iraq, a man sought out in exile by Saddam’s thugs, who broke into his home with axes to kill him. He is a man that cares about his country enough to risk his life every day to create a better nation for his people. Doubt him if you choose, but the news from Iraq focuses on the worst to the exclusion of the best and most common. This is a result of the infection of what is supposed to be an unbiased media by crusading “journalists.” By omitting the “good news” from Iraq (and elsewhere), and trumpeting the bad, it is a far easier job to convince American voters that Bush is not a good President. There are certainly serious problems there, not the least of which is the U.S. presence. But the plan has always been to train and develop the Iraqi police and military functions, and let them take on the insurgents. This is happening, and the Iraqi ability to take care of its own problems will continue to expand until one day we can walk away and leave Iraq better than we found it.

Some are overly concerned over the suicide bombings in Baghdad, and a couple of other locations. That is only part of the story. Iraq is a nation of 27 million people. Not all Iraqis live in Baghdad, in Sadr City, or in Fallujah. And not all of them, not even most of them, face daily horrors that our media wants you to believe consume the country. If that were so, why are we hearing only about the bombings in a handful of places? 

Do you truly believe there is nothing good going on in Iraq, that it is all bad? As Hiram Johnson famously said, “The first casualty when war comes is truth.” It is disgraceful that our own media has helped to kill it.

Here is some of the rest of the story, from Allawi’s address to Congress:

“Across the country there is a daily progress, too. Oil pipelines are being repaired. Basic services are being improved. The homes are being rebuilt. Schools and hospitals are being rebuilt. The clinics are open and reopened. There are now over 6 million children at school, many of them attending one of the 2,500 schools that have been renovated since liberation.

“Last week, we completed a national polio vaccination campaign, reaching over 90 percent of all Iraqi children.

“We're starting work on 150 new health centers across the country. Millions of dollars in economic aid and humanitarian assistance from this country and others around the world are flowing into Iraq. For this, again, I want to thank you.”

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“Today the foreign media have lost interest and left, but millions of dollars in economic aid and humanitarian assistance are now flowing into [Najaf and Kufa]. Ordinary citizens are once again free to live and worship at these places.”

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“Our independent electoral commission is working with the United Nations, the multinational force and our own Iraqi security forces to make these elections a reality. In 15 out of our 18 Iraqi provinces we could hold elections tomorrow. Although this is not what we see in your media, it is a fact.

“Your government, our government and the United Nations are all helping us mobilizing the necessary resources to fund voter registration and information programs. We will establish up to 30,000 polling sites, 130,000 election workers, and all other complex aspects mounting a general election in a nation of 27 million before the end of January next.” 9/28/04