Good News Bad News
You’ve got your good news, you’ve got your bad news. Now, for some completely different news:
Royal Dutch/Shell announces a consortium with Turkish energy firms to bid on natural gas projects in Iraq and build pipeline from Iraqi Kurdistan to the Turkish port of Ceyhan. With Turkey on board, ticklish Turk-Kurd issues may be cleared, and if traditional insurgent-prone areas can be avoided, Stratfor posits: “With these problems addressed, the petroleum supermajors — like Shell — might be ready to tap Iraq’s reserves. The only real obstacle that remains is for the Kurds and other Iraqis to create an oil law on which they can all agree.”
And for Iraq, that’s great news.
Mohammed from Iraq the Model at PJM with growing evidence of more good news: Iran on the ropes in Iraq.
It’s also good news when a Stryker battalion goes looking for insurgents in Baqouba and finds them, kills dozens. Bad news, a GI is killed, several are wounded and two Srykers are lost in heavy combat. Great news: The AP is embedded with this unit. We’ll hear more on the ground from them. We need more embeds in combat units. Embedding is as good for newsgatherers as it is for the newsmakers and newsreaders.
Bad news: car bombs, the bane of the security operation, on the rise and one kills four Americans in a mainly Shiite area.
It has to be good news when a commander seeks to clarify ROE to assure grunts that (A) exercise of split-second common sense is OK, (B) your mid-level commander can’t take that away from you and (C) your chain of command will stand with you.
Irrelevant news: Pentagon uses the C-word, but notes that circumstances in Iraq are too complex to be described with it.
Good in the form of bad news: The Israelis are telling their American friends that a US withdrawal from Iraq is bad for Israelis and bad for Arabs.
Unsurprising news: Senate rejects surrender. Largely on party lines, NYT notes, neglecting to highlight that Dems crossed those lines by a 3-to-1 margin. Dems vow to keep beating the dead horse in the Senate, while House Dems exult at their Appropriations Committee passage of a soon-to-be-vetoed surrender clause.
Poll news: the majority of Americans think victory in Iraq is important, despite being heavily influenced by biased news.
Interesting news: even some leading surrender enthusiasts know their policy is for losers.
But, and this is good news, the Dems and their fellow travellers haven’t figured out they are losing this thing yet. This means they may keep shooting themselves in the … foot … feet, whatever. News from someone who’s seen a lot of news: don’t count your chickens before they’ve hatched.
Off topic, but as long as we’re dealing with pols, how’s this for an odd bit of news. Obama thinks Edwards is “cute.” No Coulter jokes, please. Don’t want to end up in rehab. Call me old-fashioned, but I’m still traumatized by the news that men are non-discriminating crotch-watchers, and not yet ready for gender-bending ambiguities between candidates.
Surge stats = good news and bad news. Says Kagan: try building on the good news and stop hoping for more bad news!
News flash: It’s about the sewage, stupid! Bad news could be good news if the Americans and the Iraqi govt can get on a massive but critical problem.
Here’s some news: Iraqi Sunnis reach out to Iran.
La-La News: LA Times smacks Pelosi etal for attempting to hamstring a wartime president and endangering our national security for domestic political reasons. Actually, the LA Times tries to have it both ways, applauding Pelosi’s war-ending goal while denouncing her methods. The La-La ed board comes close to suggesting Bush may deserve a chance to succeed, but more likely is pointing Pelosi toward the “exit” sign on its own frontpage. LAT connect-the-dots: Don’t try to manage the mess, Pelosi, just pull the plug!
Pelosi’s lucky it wasn’t bad noose with this crowd, as she gets Hillaried. Hillary, meanwhile, Clinton to the core, wants to be on both sides of the news.
Speaking of which, Protein Wisdom on leftie parsing of the news: It depends what your definition of news is.
UPI newswoman Pamela Hess on what its all about. C-Span vid. Try not watching the whole thing.
Royal news: Basra excited about having a prince in their midst.
Always stop in for some news and on-the-ground views from Omar and Mohammed at Iraq the Model. Scroll down for a look at the unpleasant bulletin that came flying over Omar’s garden wall a couple of days ago.
Badgers Forward reports on Memorial Day for three of his soldiers. Melissa Sewall was Sgt. Holtom’s fiance.
Baghdad teen scene update: Sunshine’s Days of my life.
Tough news: Ardolino’s interview with a civil affairs Marine. “The Fallujan people are going to have to stand up on their own and tell these people ‘Get out. We’re done.’”
Newsman Anthony Shadid’s story of life and death on Mutanabi Street.
Jack Army in Iraq with some timeless advice: Keep improving your foxhole.
Old news: my own Invasion flashbacks, day-by-day during this anniversary month.
In non-Iraq GWOT good news: Drums along the Khyber: Forget the cavalry. Here come the Indians! Shadow Wolves on the war path vs. Osama.
In non-Iraq GWOT bad news: the canary in the coal mine has a cough. Jews exiting France. What’s that thing they say in Europe? Oh yeah:
First they came for the Jews
and I did not speak out
because I was not a Jew.
Then they came for the Communists
and I did not speak out
because I was not a Communist.
Then they came for the trade unionists
and I did not speak out
because I was not a trade unionist.
Then they came for me
and there was no one left
to speak out for me.Pastor Martin Niemöller
As we near the end, some good news that is also disturbing news, as so much of it is these days:
Khalid Sheik Mohammed dickers about the details, but confesses openly, freely and with apparent pride to the mass murder of innocents. So we get a window into the mind of a monster sees his boss Osama as a Middle Eastern George Washington. He’s talking garbage, but there’s no sign here that he has been reduced to a gibbering, drooling idiot by the frightful torture of the hated Crusader gulag at Guantanamo. Glad news: most of those 30 plots went nowhere. Predicted news: none of this will have no effect on 9/11 conspiracy theorists.
In closing, some news that tells us no matter how much things change, some things remain the same: Rosie O’Donnell, still a moron.
Topics: Good News Bad News
Posted by Jules Crittenden at 12:36 am on Friday, March 16, 2007
6 Responses to “Good News Bad News”
Leave a Reply
Trackback URLYou must be logged in to post a comment.
March 16th, 2007 at 5:00 am
Bill’s Nibbles // Open Post — 2007.03.16
March 16, 2003
The calm before the storm.
March 16th, 2007 at 5:01 am
Bill’s Nibbles // Open Post — 2007.03.16
March 16, 2003
The calm before the storm.
March 16th, 2007 at 6:55 am
Thanks for that.
March 16th, 2007 at 10:41 am
Web Reconnaissance for 03/16/2007
A short recon of whats out there that might draw your attention.
March 16th, 2007 at 11:27 am
[...] Jules Crittenden and PJ [...]
March 16th, 2007 at 7:14 pm
The best news is that some of the Doomicrats, at least, have wised up: Force a cut-and-run, damage America’s credibility with the world, and lose any possibility of power or influence until mid-century, if then.