Buildings That Are Not Burning In Iraq

[rushmc 23]

"They have a saying in the news business," Geraldo Rivera
related this week. "Reporters don't report buildings that
don't burn." And with that introduction, he told a TV
audience about the story that is being systematically
denied to our entire nation: the success story of
post-Saddam Iraq.



Are we losing some soldiers each week?
Yes.



Is there some frustration in the public
about electricity and waterservice?
Yes.



Are some Saddam Hussein loyalists
throughout the land, making trouble?
Yes.



Has this opened a window for some terrorist mischief?
Yes.



But that's ALL we hear. No wonder the country is
in a mixed mood about Iraq. If you hear about the
buildings that are not burning, though, it is a
different story indeed.



Rivera is no shill for George W. Bush. But Bush, Condi
Rice and Colin Powell together could not have been as
effective as Geraldo was Thursday night on the Fox
News Channel's Hannity and Colmes program.



"When I got to Baghdad, I barely recognized it,"
he began, comparing his just-completed trip
to two others he made during and just after the
battle to topple Saddam. "You have over 30,000
Iraqi cops and militiamen already on the job.



This is four months after major fighting stopped.
Can you imagine that kind of gearing up in this country?
Law and order is better; archaeological sites are being
preserved; factories, schools are being guarded."



But what about the secondhand griping that the media
have been so efficiently relating about power, water
and other infrastructure?



"To say that Iraq is being rebuilt is not true," answered
Rivera. "Iraq is being built. There was no infrastructure
before; we are doing it. I just think the good news is being
underestimated and underreported." At this juncture, one
must evaluate how to feel about the voices telling us only
about the bad news in Iraq, whether from the mouths of
news anchors or Democratic presidential hopefuls. At
best, they are underinformed. At worst, their one-sided
assessments of post-Saddam Iraq are intentional
falseh! oods for obvious reasons.



If I hear one more person mock that "Mission Accomplished"
banner beneath which President Bush thanked a shipload
of sailors and Marines a few months back, I'm going to spit.
That was a reference to the ouster of Saddam's regime, and
that mission was indeed accomplished, apparently to the great
chagrin of the American left. No one said what followed would
be easy or cheap, and that's why the dripping-water torture of
the cost and casualty stories is so infuriating.



Remember we pay our soldiers whether they are in Iraq
or in Ft Bragg, North Carolina.



We should all mourn the loss of every fallen soldier.
But context cries out to be heard. Our present news media
is not performing this task. As some dare to wonder if this
might become a Vietnam-like quagmire, I'll remind whoever
needs it that most of our 58,000 Vietnam war toll died between
1966 and 1972, during which we lost an average of about 8,000
per year. That's about 22 per day, every day,
for thousands of days on end.



Let us hear NO MORE Vietnam comparisons.
They do not equate.



What I hope to hear is more truth, even if we have to
wrench it from the mouths of the media and political
hacks predisposed to bash the remarkable job we are
doing every day in what was not so long ago a totalitarian
wasteland. Local elections are under way across Iraq,
Rivera reported. "Where Kurds and Arabs have been
battling for decades, things have been settling down.
Administrator Paul Bremer is doing a great job."



So does Geraldo think his media colleagues are intentionally
painting with one side of the brush?



"I'm not into conspiracy theories, ... but there's just more
bang for your buck when you report the GI who got killed
rather than the 99 who didn't get killed; who make friends,
who helped schedule elections; who helped shops get open
for business; who helped traffic flow again.



"The vast majority of Iraqis are very happy to have us
there. I would like to see a bit more balance." This
needs to be reported to the American Public who are
presently being duped. I expect the dominant media
culture to nitpick and attack Bush, and Democrats to
blast him with reckless abandon. But when that leads
to the willful exclusion of facts that would shine truthful
light on the great work of the American armed forces,
that level of malice plumbs new depths.

"America will never be destroyed from the outside,
if we falter and lose our freedoms,
it will be because we destroyed ourselves."
Abraham Lincoln

[billvon 3,119]

Yeah; too bad the news media didn't report the hundreds of buildings that weren't burning in the US on the morning of 9/11/2001. After all, there are 50 buildings in the US over 85 feet tall; why weren't the news media reporting on THEM instead of the two that were burning? Why didn't they report on all the fires the US put out that day, or do specials on all the cops and firefighters that didn't die? Damn liberal media, always spinning news to be bad.

[quade 4]

This would be a more effective article you've copied and pasted here IF it was a bit more current.

Quote

The piece quoted above is a reproduction of an editorial by Mark Davis (a talk show host with radio station WBAP/Dallas-Ft. Worth, Texas) published in the Fort Worth Star-Telegram on 31 August 2003.

http://www.snopes.com/politics/soapbox/rivera.asp

But, uh, go right ahead and hold on to your historical illusions of how the situation in Iraq is going.

quade -
The World's Most Boring Skydiver

[rushmc 23]

The difference is the bias and the agenda don't you think?

"America will never be destroyed from the outside,
if we falter and lose our freedoms,
it will be because we destroyed ourselves."
Abraham Lincoln

[rushmc 23]

You are right. I guess nothing has gone right between then and now. I am such a boob

"America will never be destroyed from the outside,
if we falter and lose our freedoms,
it will be because we destroyed ourselves."
Abraham Lincoln

[billvon 3,119]

>The difference is the bias and the agenda don't you think?

No. A bombing that kills 15 people is a tragedy even if they are happening every week. The fact that 230 million people were not killed on the morning of 9/11 does not mean that we should ignore the 3000 that were. The fact that 22 million people are not killed every day in Iraq does not mean we should ignore the 10 people that are. The fact that 100,000 troops will come home to their families does not mean we should ignore the 1000 that never will (and the thousands who will but will never walk, eat on their own, or recognize their own children again.)

Claiming that the news should represent your bias, and report on the hospital that didn't get bombed, is as silly as claiming that local news shows should ignore catastrophic local fires and play videos of kids playing in a new park instead, so as to not show bad stuff.

[quade 4]

Well, I'm sure you're going to point me to an article where the Iraq people really want us to be there -- right?

Sure, -some- people want us there, but mostly the folks that are profiting from our presence there, however, unless you missed it, the majority of the Iraq people, even the ones that are glad Hussein is gone, still really want us gone too. In fact, they're willing to kill themselves while killing our troops just to make the point.

quade -
The World's Most Boring Skydiver

[ChasingBlueSky 0]

Quote

You are right. I guess nothing has gone right between then and now. I am such a boob

Out of fear of death, contractors are sitting in the green zone refusing to leave. Why? They feel 1) they may be kidnapped and end up on the nightly news without a head or 2) everything they are building is being blown up and they need to rebuild it.

How would I know this? Because my friends brother is currently sitting IN the green zone as a contractor and this is what he is sending to me via email. How can you have progress if nothing is being built????

_________________________________________
you can burn the land and boil the sea, but you can't take the sky from me....
I WILL fly again.....

[PhillyKev 0]

Hmmm, interesting perspective. And contrasts with what the retired Marine Col. and Time Mag reporter were saying on the O'Reilly factor last night. Something about 50% unemployment, and massive fear by the general population and all foreigners. They were pointing out that a year ago US contractors would walk around Baghdad shopping and talking to locals, and now no one will go out in public in Baghdad without armed security forces.

Hmmm, maybe that's why they haven't reported on the buildings that aren't burning. Hard to see them when you're hiding in a basement.

[kallend 2,150]

I didn't die on my last skydive. Nor was I injured. No line twists. In fact, it was quite uneventful. Should I write it up for the "Incidents" forum?

...

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

[ChasingBlueSky 0]

Quote

Well, I'm sure you're going to point me to an article where the Iraq people really want us to be there -- right?

They really like us over there, right??
http://news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/nm/20041019/pl_nm/campaign_iraqis_dc_3

_________________________________________
you can burn the land and boil the sea, but you can't take the sky from me....
I WILL fly again.....

[rushmc 23]

I got the response I expected and then some. The four of you can go ahead and dwell on the negatives from a smaller portion of the country if you wish. You can swallow the agenda driven reporting from your loved left leaning media if you want. If is a free country. (and it will stay that way thanks to GWB)

If you really take a look you can find more good than bad in that country. I too believe lies are being printed and broadcasted but not by Bush and his administration.

Have your beliefs.........I have mine.

"America will never be destroyed from the outside,
if we falter and lose our freedoms,
it will be because we destroyed ourselves."
Abraham Lincoln

[PhillyKev 0]

Quote

The four of you can go ahead and dwell on the negatives from a smaller portion of the country if you wish. You can swallow the agenda driven reporting from your loved left leaning media if you want.

But I thought Fox News was fair and balanced? A retired marine Col. and Time reporter who both just returned from Iraq painted a pretty gloomy picture on the O'Reilly factor last night.