Isn't Iraq like the greatest news, why isn't there any sense of success?

Question

Is it because the media and the liberals don't want to actually admit they are wrong? I've been hearing tons of news just like this from Iraq.

Its time to celebrate

http://www.cnn.com/2008/WORLD/meast/07/17/iraq.afghanistan.ap/index.html

Answer 1

I wish someone would publish the progress made there, instead of just the body-count....

If anyone knows the following, I'd love to hear about it!!

How many new schools have been built and are up and running?

How many more communities have good running water than before?

How many more communities have power (electricity) than before?

How many new miles of road have been built since Hussein was taken out of power?

How many communities are now policing themselves- where the US/UN forces have trained locals to take care of their own?

And any other milestones of success...

Answer 2

Whether or not Iraq is a "success" really depends upon your definition of success.  Sure, violence is down from the horrendous level where it was, but Iraq is still a violent place.  Also, much of the reduction in violence can be attributed to two factors:  the US ceding control of much of Iraq, including large parts of Baghdad, to the Sunni, Shiite, and Kurdish militias, which the US is also paying and arming; and the completion of the ethnic cleansing of Iraq, and Baghdad neighborhoods, so that much of the country is segregated into Sunni, Shiite, and Kurdish enclaves.  Much of the Iraqi-on-Iraqi violence in the past has been one group driving out the minority group in that area.  And to top it all off, the US is busy building high concrete walls in Baghdad to literally "cement" this segregation.  This is not a recipe for the creation of a successful coalition goverment.  

Further, although the reason for the Surge was not just to lessen violence, but to provide a breathing space for the various Iraqi groups to come together in some kind of coalition, that is not happening.  The Shiites still are basically in control, such is it is, while the Sunnis for the most part are still not represented, and the Kurds, who have no intention of giving up the autonomy they have enjoyed since the first Gulf War, have walked out.

Finally, there absolutely cannot be any claims of "success" -- progress, perhaps, but not success -- until the US no longer has 150,000 troops in Iraq, or anywhere near that.  Although technically the Surge is over, we now have 18,000 more troops in Iraq than before the Surge.  Critics of the Surge, who called it an escalation (echoing Vietnam), were derided, but that is exactly what it has become.  A "surge" is when something increases then decreases, but when something gets bigger and stays bigger, that's an escalation.

If you think that having three different militias in charge of much of Iraq, with conflicting goals, armed to the teeth, and flush with American largesse, is an indication of success, just wait.  Look, I am not hoping for bad things to happen, but I have been studying history, and military history in particular, for forty years, and I can tell you that Iraq is a powderkeg and a breeding ground for extremism.  Just as the US reaped the whirlwind of the Taliban and Al Qaeda in return for it's sowing of the wind in Afghanistan in the 1980s, so to will they reap the whirlwind for their misguided adventure in Iraq.

Answer 3

NO.

see link below.

celebrate?

you're kidding right?

Answer 4

Absolutely. The media sells more space with "The sky is falling" than "We're doing a good thing."

I have friends and relative coming back from Iraq that tell of all the progress being made in a country that has long gone with out so that a few greedy wealthy leaders can live like Kings.

They tell of their embarrassment when the people thank them for what they have done when they are "just doing what is right".

I think that the 'press' is a screwed up sack of....I don't talk with them, they would just twist it around anyway.

EDIT: And to top it off, the 1st answerer uses a Chinese propaganda report to 'justify' the screwed up press. In the case of the Chinese drug connection, it may have a bit of truth to it since many of the foreign terrorists found after a firefight are found to have used and have in their possession many types of drugs to get them high before a fight. And China May in fact be the route from which these drugs come. Isn't that interesting?