What the Media Hasn't Reported on Iraq
(My friend over at "Strong Conservative" listed these great statistics)
How Could We Know? I didn't know! You didn't know! How could we know?
Did you know that 47 countries' have reestablished their embassies in Iraq?
Did you know that the Iraqi government currently employs 1.2 million Iraqi people?
Did you know that 3,100 schools have been renovated, 364 schools are under rehabilitation, 263 new schools are now under construction and 38 new schools have been completed in Iraq?
Did you know that Iraq's higher educational structure consists of 20 Universities, 46 Institutes or colleges and 4 research centers, all currently operating?
Did you know that 25 Iraq students departed for the United States in January 2005 for the re-established Fulbright program ?
Did you know that the Iraqi Navy is operational ? They have 5-100-foot patrol craft, 34 smaller vessels and a naval infantry regiment.
Did you know that Iraq's Air Forc e consists of three operational squadrons, which includes 9 reconnaissance and 3 US C-130 transport aircraft (under Iraqi operational control) which operate day and night, and will soon add 16 UH-1 helicopters and 4 Bell Jet Rangers ?
Did you know that Iraq has a counter-terrorist unit and a Commando Battalion?
Did you know that the Iraqi Police Service has over 55,000 fully trained and equipped police officers?
Did you know that there are 5 Police Academies in Iraq that produce over 3500 new officers each 8 weeks?
Did you know there are more than 1100 building projects going on in Iraq? They include 364 schools, 67 public clinics, 15 hospitals, 83 railroad stations, 22 oil facilities, 93 water facilities and 69 electrical facilities.
Did you know that 96% of Iraqi children under the age of 5 have received the first 2 series of polio vaccinations?
Did you know that 4.3 million Iraqi children were enrolled in primary school by mid October?
Did you know that there are 1,192,000 cell phone subscribers in Iraq and phone use has gone up 158% ?
Did you know that Iraq has an independent media that consists of 75 radio stations, 180 newspapers and 10 television stations?
Did you know that the Baghdad Stock Exchange opened in June of 2004?
Did you know that 2 candidates in the Iraqi presidential election had a televised debate recently?
OF COURSE WE DIDN'T KNOW! WHY DIDN'T WE KNOW?YOUR NEWS MEDIA REFUSES TO TELL US!
Instead of reflecting our love for our country, we get photos of flag burning incidents at Abu Ghraib and people throwing snowballs at the presidential motorcades. tragically, the lack of accentuating the positive in Iraq serves three two major purposes of the extreme liberal news media in the USA/Canada:
1. It is intended to undermine the world's perception of the United States thus minimizing consequent support from our allies, and:
2. It is intended to discourage American citizens and erode their support for the war.
3. It is intended to help the Democratic Party gain more power in the next elections.
13 comments:
I don't have a problem w/the war in Iraq. I think we did the right thing since we went in and cause major havoc. What I don't agree with is the huge amounts of money that are being spent. Why is the US offering the most aid? A few countries helped, but did not invest nearly as much. Our economy is now hurting. Yes, we are helping to fix the problem we caused, but it has come to the point where our economy is suffering to the point where I'm beginning to wonder if we're on the verge of a depression. I've been contemplating moving my 401k into international investments because I'm concerned (my husband already did). At one time the US dollar had a very high value, but that is not the case any longer.
Maybe the Sunni sheiks in the Awakening Councils, which we've been bribing to the tune of millions of dollars to keep them from blowing us up, will loan you back some dollars for your 401K, Trace.
The occupation of Iraq is already a text book case of ineptitude and corruption, the shining jewel at the top of the list of "accomplishments" of the inept and corrupt Bush regime, many of whom will skulk away from the White House next January much richer from their investments in Haliburton and Blackwater. Better if they were frogmarched out of the Rose Garden into paddywagons charged as war profiteers.
One day when you're rolling a wheel barrow filled with worthless dollars to the corner store to buy a pint of milk and a crust of bread, you'll recall that I told you that Bush was a crook and a liar and has driven this country over a precipice. Sometimes it takes the worst for people to wake up... Oh, and don't worry about Bush and Cheney and the rest of those jackals, they'll get by just fine...
BB, I appreciate your comments but you have really no idea what you are talking about in regards to Iraq and our future. If Clinton had done something about Osama when he could have we would not be in half this much mess. Iraq had WMDs that are now in Syria and they also were very close to having nuclear capabilities. I've talked to a guy who was working with one of the top nuclear scientists in the middle east...he was basically under "house arrest" and his family were "guests" of Saddam while he worked. I have too many close ties to the Iraqi community here in the US...I've heard what the liberal media doesn't want you to know.
You also don't take into account all the foiled attempts at killing innocent people here in the US - Just last week another gang of terrorists were rounded up who were DAYS away from hijacking a few more planes. Obama should have gone to talk to the community first - that would have done it.
In the lead-up to the fiasco in Iraq the so-called liberal MSM was filled with horror stories of Saddam's nukes and other terrible WMDs, spoonfed them by Bush and his pet Chelabi. The so-called liberal media beat the drums for war as hard as they could. Even the New York Times, bastion of liberalism, filled its pages with war propaganda.
The beauty of our democracy is that we hear many voices. Here's a link to Pat Buchanan's take on the war. Since he's not a liberal maybe you'll be able to hear him.
BB,
You're not reading hon,
I have MANY first hand accounts of these from Iraqis as well as the first waves of GIs who were there. The liberal media and anyone else can say what they want. I saw a homemade video of one town that was wiped out....a whole town in the North that Saddam wanted gone. The guy left his house to go to another town and came back the next day to everyone (including women and children) laying dead all over the town.... I saw the video. This was a result of a WMD. Oh, but that's right, they never existed.....
I've seen the video too, the extermination of Halabja in 1988, done I might add with the tacit approval of the Reagan administration (Saddam was our despot then). So what? By 2003 he was exhausted, a pushover. The Iraqi exile community was making a fortune feeding our intelligence community fairy tales of "mobile poison gas" factories and taxi drivers pretending to be nuclear scientists chained in Saddam's vast labs.
Little boys who cry wolf get believed the first time, but then people ignore them after they are exposed. The CIA says there were no WMDs found in Iraq, and more importantly for the neo-cons who insist they were moved to Syria, the CIA found that Saddam had no capacity to produce significant WMDs. I suppose the CIA is a liberal media outlet...
Look, the nation bought all these fairy tales in 2002, by 2006 we were sick of being lied to. If you want to believe them still, then go ahead. But don't whine because few others do.
BB,
you still are not reading. you did NOT see the video I saw. It was taped by the guy that showed it to me. It was his home town in the North - he's a Kurd. He cam ehome and found his family and friends (with the rest of the town) dead and laying in the streets, the doorways, in the beds etc. Saddam, DID have a gas weapons that were powerful enough to kill a whole town. These are not stories on the news hon - these are first hand accounts from Iraqis who were there, saw the results and even some have seen the weapons and saw them moving them....don't tell me they don't exist CNN, they are all too real and now in Syria.
I saw a video recently that said that 9/11 was a conspiracy and that George W. Bush and his cronies were responsible. Yep. Someone made a whole video about it and put it up everywhere. They claimed to have proof even.
Just because someone makes a video, doesn't make it true.
The CIA says no WMD's anywhere. George Bush senior used to run the CIA. Not a liberal conspiracy. Just no WMD's. And I think I can say honestly that most of us in this country really, really wish those WMD's had been there. None of us wanted to look like a bunch of war criminals.
*sigh*
And in all seriousness, Petunia you must keep blogging about politics. My husband and I had a whole discussion about the garlic nose thing and being of Italian American heritage myself, I was stunned. Now whenever we talk politics, I always say, "I wonder what Petunia thinks." And I mean it. I tune in every day to see what you have to say. I enjoy reading your perspective on politics very much.
bethgo -
thanks for stopping in. I never really started this blog to be controversial but it seemed it was when I was blogging about my feelings of adoption, abortion and politics.
I don't blog for people to come here and read...there are a few friends I know in my home town that read and I read theirs but even though I read others blogs I don't comment much anymore so they don't come and comment back.
I just started this to write about stuff I'm thinking about. I'm glad you enjoy it. Come over anytime!
"BB,
you still are not reading. you did NOT see the video I saw. It was taped by the guy that showed it to me. It was his home town in the North - he's a Kurd. He cam ehome and found his family and friends (with the rest of the town) dead and laying in the streets, the doorways, in the beds etc."
Yeah, you can see them on YouTube, just type in "Halabja gas attack", in Kurdish northern Iraq. All the videos of the massacre were shot by Kurds, even the ones later shown in CNN. It was in 1988, like I said. Which village is your friend's? If so, I'm surprised it isn't up on YouTube as well. When did it occur?
You know, the so-called liberal media was totally supportive of the war until 2005-6. If there were WMD's then they would have pimped them. But if you want to believe they're in Syria, go ahead. In the meantime, take a look at this link, it's from the National Defense Institute, it describes the Iraq War as a "major debacle". But I suppose the US military is a liberal tool as well. www.ndu.edu/inss/Occasional_Papers/OP5.pdf
BB,
By no means am I saying the war has gone right. I think the US did not anticipate the amount of money the Al Qaeda would pour into suicide bombers and attacks on our troups. Iran, Osama, etc. are really excited to have some US targets. I also think they underestimated the response we would get from the Iraqis. For 30 years they had been brainwashed and they didn't wanted to trust us. At the same time, they were so happy we were there and getting rid of Saddam. That has changed considerably and I believe the people are really beginning to see that our troops are not there for oil or to take over their country, kill them etc. They see how our troops are genuinely fond of their children and we care what happens to them.
We are seeing progress over there too, electricity, water, schools, industry....my friends are happy. However, some of my friends just came back and they said it will be another generation before any of them would ever move back.
As much as I HATE spending all the money and having them still over there, pulling out immediately would have global implications and would be catastrophic. So basically, we're darned if we do and darned if we don't.
The guy with the tape...I honestly don't think he would know how to put it on you tube...I don't. Tech challenged. I wish he would show it to someone....I couldn't watch it. He's the same kid that when he was small Saddam came to his school and asked all the kids what their parents said about him. One of the kids spit on the ground and Saddam ordered his whole family to be slaughtered right in front of all the kids. :O
Al Qaeda in Iraq has been estimated as representing as low as 1% to as high as 5% of the insurgency against the US occupation. A large portion of the folks we are now paying directly to be our "friends" were blowing up US soldiers last year, and will take this hobby up again if and when it suits them.
If the Dems hadn't won the congress in 2006, Bush would have kept that idiot Rumsfeld, there would have been no "surge", and we would be even more worse off than we are. You should drop to the ground and thank the Dems, because it took a loss of congress for Bush to start listening to his generals instead of insulting their intelligence as he did for the first six years of his presidency.
Iran is the net winner in Iraq. They're covering all bets; they finance the Badr and Sadr brigades who are fighting turf wars all over southern Iraq, and when Ahmadinejad visits Al Maliki, he gets a hero's welcome. Regardless of who "wins", Iran wins.
The truest measure of our intentions in Iraq is the US embassy we're building in Baghdad, the only project that is on time and on budget. A billion dollar project that promises a forward base for US interests for the next generations. It will be a generation at least for the infrastructure of Iraq to return to the minimal levels of the pre-war, but in the meantime the CIA and other spooks will be able to live in comfort with their own personal power plant, bowling alley, movie multiplex, food courts, etc., behind super reinforced concrete.
Post a Comment