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Not Cricket

This embarrassing. Even the Brits, who are barely in Iraq anymore, are noticing how unsporting the Iraq coverage is. Times of London:  

Is no news good news or bad news? In Iraq, it seems good news is deemed no news. There has been striking success in the past few months in the attempt to improve security, defeat al-Qaeda sympathisers and create the political conditions in which a settlement between the Shia and the Sunni communities can be reached. This has not been an accident but the consequence of a strategy overseen by General David Petraeus in the past several months …

Indeed, on every relevant measure, the shape of the Petraeus curve is profoundly encouraging …

None of this means that all the past difficulties have become history. A weakened al-Qaeda will be tempted to attempt more spectacular attacks to inflict substantial loss of life in an effort to prove that it remains in business. Although the tally of car bombings and improvised explosive devices has fallen back sharply, it would only take one blast directed at an especially large crowd or a holy site of unusual reverence for the headlines about impending civil war to be allowed another outing …

The current achievements, and they are achievements, are being treated as almost an embarrassment in certain quarters. The entire context of the contest for the Democratic nomination for president has been based on the conclusion that Iraq is an absolute disaster and the first task of the next president is to extricate the United States at maximum speed. Democrats who voted for the war have either repudiated their past support completely (John Edwards) or engaged in a convoluted partial retraction (Hillary Clinton). Congressional Democrats have spent most of this year trying (and failing) to impose a timetable for an outright exit…

All of these attitudes have become outdated. There are many valid complaints about the manner in which the Bush Administration and Donald Rumsfeld, in particular, managed Iraq after the 2003 military victory. But not to recognise that matters have improved vastly in the year since Mr Rumsfeld’s resignation from the Pentagon was announced and General Petraeus was liberated would be ridiculous. Politicians on both sides of the Atlantic have to appreciate that Iraq is no longer, as they thought, an exercise in damage limitation but one of making the most of an opportunity. The instinct of too many people is that if Iraq is going badly we should get out because it is going badly and if it is getting better we should get out because it is getting better. This is a catastrophic miscalculation. Iraq is getting better. That is good, not bad, news.

Well, they are covering the good news in the United States.  With the highest of yeah-but journalism standards: Yeah, things are undeniably better, but …  They’re trying to soothe those for whom good news is bad news. They’re diligently hunting for flies in the ointment, and every now and then they get one.

More from the Times, which is devoting a great deal of space to this today. Undoubtedly a Murdoch plot:

The Day(s) No One Died. I like the comment from reader Howard in Johannesburg, who apparently would rather see genocide in Iraq and a greater Iranosphere:

“Hmm… One swallow does not a summer make. Do not encourage America; just now they will want to deliver the same mercy mission to Iran. I have a feeling that will be even less appreciated.”

Rising Trade and Safer Streets: 

Smoking hookah pipes and drinking beer, Sarmad Ali joked and gossiped long into the night with a group of friends in Baghdad – a luxury they could not enjoy a few months ago because of the violence.

Slightly tipsy, the young men piled into a minibus and drove to Palestine Street, until recently a no-go area after dark but now filled with traffic and pedestrians. They pulled up outside a recently opened late-night restaurant, which serves sheep’s head on bread, a favourite dish for Iraqi men after a few drinks.

Such hangouts, called pacha restaurants, closed after the 2003 invasion because people were too scared to go out late in the evening. “We were surprised to see a pacha restaurant open again,” said Mr Ali, a 28-year-old contractor. “It is a clear sign that things are getting back to normal.”

Bloodshed in Iraq, still high by most standards, has dropped significantly since August thanks to the impact of a joint US-Iraqi security plan that has resulted in a huge rise in the number of American and Iraqi forces on the streets. The boom of a car bomb, mortar attack or roadside blast is noticeably less frequent.

Small Wars Journal notes Sign of the Times.

Surber notes the irony.

Tigerhawk connects the dots.

I say, ‘Pundits, so good to see you, do come in, its chota pegs on the verandah. Boy! Chop chop. You remember Glubb, good chap, went native.  One of the hazards when you take the King’s shilling. Poor dentistry, frightfully common, what? You don’t expect these people to rule themselves, do you? Bloody Yanks, entirely unsporting.

Topics: Iraq, media

  Posted by Jules Crittenden at 8:50 am on Saturday, November 3, 2007

8 Responses to “Not Cricket”

1. blogagog Says:
   November 3rd, 2007 at 9:42 am

   “October was the best month for 18 months and the second-best in almost four years”

   Second best month in almost four years. Such good news! Maybe we’ll soon be able to leave the country as the hippies want us to, but as liberators, not as failed oppressors! The hippies prefer us to leave as failed oppressors, but you can’t make everyone happy.

2. Wake up America-Tides Turns in Iraq Says:
   November 3rd, 2007 at 12:42 pm

   No News is Good News Part #2

   Choice #1: They can acknowledge what is right in front of them and risk the ire of their far left, liberal base, like MoveOn.org and Code pink and the liberal bloggers that have shown they will “go after” anyone that dares speak up and tell the truth…

3. TBinSTL Says:
   November 3rd, 2007 at 2:09 pm

   Has anyone given real thought to the possibility that our current state could not have been achieved without going through all the bad times? Sad to say, but I think that the Iraqis on the street had to see us struggle before they believed that we couldn’t simply fix everything with a wave of the hand. Now they have realized that they have to invest in their own success. Since it is common belief in the Middle East that America has near godlike power, I’ll use and abuse(and modify) an old saying, “America helps those that help themselves.”

4. saltydog Says:
   November 3rd, 2007 at 2:13 pm

   But Bush lied!

5. Bart Says:
   November 3rd, 2007 at 3:22 pm

   More than that, TB, I think they had to see for themselves the alternative. And, this is not a bad thing as “the burnt hand teaches best.” Polls show support for suicide bombing has plunged across the region. If Iraq succeeds, it will herald a new Middle East, and George Bush will be seen as a visionary on a par with Lincoln, Roosevelt, et al.

6. piniella Says:
   November 3rd, 2007 at 4:36 pm

   The point of the Suge was political reconciliation.
   There has been no political reconciliation.
   The Surge FAILED.

7. saltydog Says:
   November 3rd, 2007 at 9:09 pm

   piniells says: “The Surge FAILED.”

   Are you talking about political reconciliation in Congress, or in Iraq?

8. Dave Surls Says:
   November 3rd, 2007 at 11:12 pm

   “George Bush will be seen as a visionary on a par with Lincoln, Roosevelt, et al.”

   If I was George Bush, I’d by insulted. He’s ten times the man and a hundred times the president that that clown Roosevelt was.

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