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Potemkin Journalism

WaPo finally decides to do some war reporting in the runup to that Petraeus report.  Where does it go?  The Dora marketplace that the pols have walked through.  Damning conclusion?   

… recent improvements are sometimes tenuous, temporary, even illusory.

In many areas, U.S. forces are now working at cross-purposes with Iraq’s elected Shiite-led government by financing onetime Sunni insurgents who say they now want to work with the Americans. The loyalties of the Iraqi military and police — widely said to be infiltrated by Shiite militias — remain in doubt.

Even U.S. soldiers assigned to protect Petraeus’s showcase remain skeptical. “Personally, I think it’s a false representation,” Campbell said, referring to the portrayal of the Dora market as an emblem of the surge’s success. “But what can I say? I’m just doing my job and don’t ask questions.”

While none of 18 benchmarks for progress set by Congress specifically addresses markets, security in neighborhoods such as Dora is viewed as essential for political reconciliation. Under Petraeus’s counterinsurgency strategy, U.S. troops have left their fortified bases and moved into the smaller stations and outpost from which they can regularly interact with Iraqis.

Hours before Campbell spoke, a delegation led by an American general, with several reporters in tow, filed through Combat Outpost Gator. Scores of Iraqis were milling inside the fortified market, where shopkeepers were selling clothing, shoes, and other consumer goods. In December, the market was a war zone, but roadside bombings and other attacks there have dropped significantly.

After the delegation left, Maj. Ron Minty, 36, said that the generals had wanted 300 shops open for business by July 1. By the day of the delegation’s visit, 303 had opened.

“It took us until August 1st — not bad,” said Minty, the acting commander of the 2nd Battalion, 12th Infantry Regiment. The goal by Sept. 1 was 500, he said. (By Monday, 349 stores were open. Before the U.S.-led invasion, the market had more than 850 shops.)

Still, the Dora market is a Potemkin village of sorts. The U.S. military hands out $2,500 grants to shop owners to open or improve their businesses. The military has fixed windows and doors and even helped rebuild shops that had burned down, soldiers and others said.

The story line is clear.  Aware of wavering in Congress, aware that the “lack of political progress” line is not sufficient, major news organizations that have contented themselves largely with press conferences and pack journalism are now attacking the military progress they’ve declined to report on in any meaningful way. “… sometimes tenuous, temprorary, even illusory … Potemkin.”  

Here’s another kind of Potemkin reporting … progress report in Abu Ghraib zeroes in on suspicions, motivations, trouble spots, starting with mood-setting entirely unconfirmed rape anecdote.  Which would, I suppose, be fine if this report sat in any kind of context of comprehensive war reportage that did anything but zero in on suspicion and doubt.

Hey, check this out.  See what happens when someone goes into the field, zeroes on  results, not gripes. AP buries its doubts. So it is possible, within the complexity of Iraq, all the bitter histories, the conflicting and sometimes contradictory motivations, to arrive at conclusions about actual, meaningful progress: 

PATROL BASE MURRAY, Iraq (AP) — From this base in insurgent country south of Baghdad, there are no doubts that the U.S. decision to pour 30,000 additional troops into the fight has had an effect.

Before the 3rd Infantry Division’s 2nd Brigade arrived in mid-June, the area around Patrol Base Murray was known as the Triangle of Death — a safe haven for al-Qaida in Iraq to ambush Shiites, launch mortar and rocket attacks into the Green Zone and rig car bombs, suicide vests and other weapons for use in the capital.

Today, commanders point to the sharp drop in Baghdad attacks — down in August to a quarter of what they had been, according to the top commander Gen. David Petraeus — as evidence of their effectiveness.

”Our job was to stop the flow of accelerants to Baghdad,” Lt. Col. Ken Adgie, commander of the 1st Battalion, 30th Infantry Regiment, said Monday, referring to bombs, bullets and fighters that accelerate the conflict.

”Take a look. Have the number of incidents in Baghdad slowed? It’s working,” he said.

More than just adding more boots on the ground, Petraeus’ strategy called for the establishment of smaller combat outposts like Patrol Base Murray to encourage soldiers to get to know the local population and get closer to the insurgency.

…

”It’s allowed us to set up a blocking line to interdict the accelerants on the way in — explosives, suicide vests, even fighters — and that’s being reflected in what we are seeing in Baghdad,” he said.

”You can’t always defend from the goal line.”

… 

Though the progress in Arab Jabour has been encouraging, Adgie cautioned that the fight against insurgents is not like a conventional battlefield where victory — or defeat — are apparent.

”We attack them and they just push away,” he said. ”But they no longer have free reign.”

Good morning Instapundit, etal. Always glad to see you, even when the news is predictably depressing.  I mean the “news,” not the news. You know what I mean. Anyway, come on in. I’m scratching my head over this thing about China. But here’s some happy Leb news.  You can toss around the historical analogies, but if al-Asad comes to mean even a small bit of what Gettysburg did, in some way, I’d be happy. First draft? Wrong.

Topics: Iraq, media, military

  Posted by Jules Crittenden at 8:32 am on Tuesday, September 4, 2007

5 Responses to “Potemkin Journalism”

1. mr_oni Says:
   September 4th, 2007 at 9:10 am

   HEH,
   Potemkin village; “Modern historians consider this scenario of self-serving deception to be, at best, an exaggeration, and quite possibly simply malicious rumors spread by Potemkin’s opponents.”

   http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Potemkin_village

2. Bloodthirsty Liberal Says:
   September 4th, 2007 at 10:01 am

   When I hear Potemkin, I think of the great film by Eisenstein, and one of the first examples of cinematic propaganda. The WaPo can’t depict in print a baby carriage careening down the Odessa steps—after the infant’s mother has been shot in the eye–but I’m sure they could find someone to describe such a scene in lurid detail if they first provided the outline. Today’s Eisensteins sip decaf grande lattes around long mahogany tables in editorial conferences rooms—or, in today’s downsized newspaper industry, small Dunkin’ Donuts hazelnuts while squashed around a couple of gray metal desks pushed back to back.

   BTL

3. The Thunder Run Says:
   September 4th, 2007 at 11:21 am

   Web Reconnaissance for 09/04/2007

   A short recon of what’s out there that might draw your attention, updated throughout the day…so check back often.

4. Terrye Says:
   September 4th, 2007 at 7:39 pm

   I don’t care if the Iraqis all like each other, all they have to do is tolerate each other. Sometimes I think that unless all the Iraqis turn away from their tribal and religious differences and become one big happy family there will be people who see this as a failure.

   I know cities in the country where I would not feel safe walking the streets. What is our excuse?

5. davidp Says:
   September 4th, 2007 at 9:07 pm

   “U.S. forces are now working at cross-purposes with Iraq’s elected Shiite-led government” Damn. The Shia aren’t making the required political progress, so the US is making it for them. What mock-terrible news.

   The Dora market is only a “Potemkin village” if the US doesn’t hand out grants in places the media and politicians don’t visit. As I understand it, they are handing out re-establishment grants all over the place, whever things are stabilising, as part of a strategy of getting people productive (which is both competent nation building and competent counter-insurgency). Am I right about this?

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