Agenda Journalism: Dwelling on American Deaths & Enemy Successes

If you ran a newspaper and wanted to report objectively on the Iraq war, what formula would you follow? No doubt your headline would be about our main actions in the war zone that day. Your reporting would begin with our major activities, both the successes and failures of our units. As a part of reporting on these activities, you would make note of friendly casualties. We must never lose site of the sacrifice we are asking our soldiers to make as part of the war effort. We must acknowledge them and honor them.

But what if you wanted to push a particular agenda? What if you wanted to maintain only a facade of objectivity while doing your utomost to undercut support for the war in Iraq among Americans? How would you do it?

The answer of course is to place the greatest emphasis on the most negative news concerning the war. That would mean emphasizing news of enemy successes and friendly casualties over all else. It would mean reporting a butcher's bill as the headline and dwelling on that bill in the lead paragraphs every day. Enter the Washington Post Foreign Desk.

The Washington Post's Foreign Desk is not reporting the news objectively. They are shaping it in an effort to manipulate public opinion about the Iraq war. The formula that they follow is, by now, well established. Their daily headline on the news from Iraq announces the number of American or friendly casualties. Usually the majority of the story then dwells on these deaths. Only then, at the end of the article, is there any news about the activities of our military in Iraq. And even then, the news of our activities in Iraq and the successes we are having is more often then not incomplete and/or deliberately de-emphasized. In short, the Post is all about agenda journalism. They are making a transparent canard of their supposed journalistic objectivity. One need look no further then today's Washington Post reporting on Iraq to see the formula of agenda journalism in action:

At Least 14 U.S Soldiers Die in Attacks in Iraq
U.S. Forces Continue Efforts to Oust Insurgents From Diyala Province

By John Ward Anderson and Howard Schneider
Washington Post Foreign Service
Thursday, June 21, 2007; 10:06 AM

BAGHDAD, June 21 -- Fourteen U.S. soldiers have died in scattered attacks in Iraq over the last two days, including five killed Thursday by a roadside bomb in a northeastern Baghdad neighborhood, the military said in a series of statements.

With a major U.S. effort to oust insurgents underway in Diyala province north of the Iraqi capital, a series of five attacks elsewhere claimed the lives of American soldiers on patrol in Baghdad, in the restive Al Anbar province, and southwest of the capital.

Few details were released. But the military said that the deadliest attack involved a unit working with the Iraqi Security Force to "clear and control" a section of northeastern Baghdad. Along with the five U.S. soldiers who were killed, three Iraqi civilians and one Iraqi interpreter died, and one other soldier and two Iraqi civilians were injured.

In other incidents, a U.S. soldier died and three were wounded when a rocket-propelled grenade struck their vehicle in northern Baghdad early this morning; four U.S. soldiers died yesterday when a roadside bomb detonated near a convoy in western Baghdad; two Marines were killed Wednesday during combat operations in Al Anbar province; and two other Marines died and four were injured by an explosive device near their vehicle southwest of Baghdad.

As part of a surge of some 28,500 additional troops into Iraq, U.S. forces have moved more deeply into Baghdad neighborhoods in an effort to flush out insurgents, and American officials have said that an increase in casualties was likely.

The series of attacks in the last two days occurred away from the scene of a major U.S. offensive unfolding north of Baghdad, where U.S. and Iraqi forces are attempting to stamp out the Sunni extremist group al-Qaeda in Iraq from the city of Baqubah. . . .

Only after dwelling on the casualties does the Washington Post get to the news from the Iraq War. In all fairness to the Post, this is one of the rare articles when the Post actually fleshes out the activities of our forces in Iraq:

About 10,000 U.S. and Iraqi troops are participating in the new offensive, called Arrowhead Ripper, which began early Tuesday in Diyala, a mixed Sunni-Shiite-Kurdish province north and east of Baghdad that, in recent months, has become a stronghold of al-Qaeda in Iraq and the most violent area in the country outside of the capital. Forty-one insurgents and one American soldier were killed in two days of fighting, the U.S. military said Wednesday.

"We have found three warehouses and factories where car bombs cars were built, as well as large stashes of TNT and mortar rounds used to make" roadside bombs, said Mohammed al-Askari, an Iraqi Defense Ministry spokesman. "We also found the swords that they used to slaughter people in their so-called courts, in addition to sniper rifles and silencers."

The U.S. military said in a statement that five weapons caches had been found and that 25 roadside bombs and five booby-trapped houses had been discovered and destroyed.

A U.S. military spokesman, Lt. Col. Christopher C. Garver, said the military was investigating the mistaken bombing of a house in the Khatoon neighborhood of Baqubah on Wednesday. The incident occurred when soldiers decided to destroy a heavily booby-trapped residence with an aircraft bomb, but the bomb hit the wrong house, Garver said. He said it was unknown whether there were any casualties in the strike. Later, a helicopter destroyed the targeted house with a Hellfire missile, and there were large secondary explosions, Garver said.

Askari said that the offensive "has developed greatly" and that U.S.-led forces were starting a "second phase by surrounding and isolating the areas in which the terrorists are located."

The U.S. military has been sharply criticized -- particularly from within its own ranks -- for earlier offensives against al-Qaeda in Iraq and other Sunni insurgents that allowed them to slip away and regroup in other areas. As soon as U.S. forces withdrew, the insurgents typically returned.

This time, military planners are trying to avoid that outcome by drawing a tight ring around Baqubah that locks insurgents inside, where they can be captured or killed. The challenge was illustrated Tuesday by the capture of six uninjured men who were trying to escape from Baqubah in an Iraqi ambulance, the U.S. military said in a statement.

Commanders "said we need to cordon off the city and control access in and out, which is what we did yesterday morning, and now we are very deliberately doing house-to-house clearing," said Capt. Jon Korneliussen, a U.S. military spokesman. "Many houses were wired with explosives."

. . . Sunni fighters from a variety of insurgent groups that have fought U.S. forces in the past -- including the Islamic Army and the 1920 Revolution Brigades -- were now working closely with U.S. and Iraqi forces in the offensive, helping them identify al-Qaeda in Iraq members and facilities. The fighters, operating under an umbrella group called the United Jihad Factions Council, have been issued special insignias to distinguish them from al-Qaeda in Iraq members, he said. . . .

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Does This Washington Post Article Constitute News?

It is hard to imagine how today's Washington Post article, "Iraq Sinking Fast," could be viewed as anything other then agenda journalism at its worst. It is particularly odious, coming as it does, on the first day of major offensives against al Qaeda. As our soldiers fight and die, the Post prints this tripe saying all is lost and it is time to give up. What a craven and despicable lot they are indeed.

The article is the Post's take on a report released by the "Fund for Peace," an organization that the Post tells us is a "research organization and advocacy group." The group says that Iraq is lost and we should leave it in three pieces. Does that sound familiar? Do Reid and Pelosi come to mind.

The ethically challenged Post does not tell us anything about the Fund for Peace that would allow its readers to judge the bias and validity of the Fund's message, but if you click on the Fund's website, you will learn that this is an organization that views all "violence as the last refuge of the incompetent." One almost expects to hear "Kumbiyah" playing in the background. A thorough check of the site reveals not a mention of any of the following: Wahhabi Islam, Khomeinism, Iran, radical Islam, al Qaeda, bin Laden, Zawahiri, nuclear terrorism, Anbar Awakening, counterinsurgeny, surge, 9-11, 7-7, etc. The fact that not just one, but all of these topics are ignored by the "Fund for Peace" might suggest to Post readers that what they are reading is not quite balanced and "reality based."

Of course you will find none of this in the Washington Post report. The Post is fine with merely reporting this groups anti Iraq war message without digging at all into its validitiy or bias. It is only the message that is important.

"The report tells us that Iraq is sinking fast," said Fund for Peace President Pauline Baker. "We believe it's reached the point of no return. We have recommended -- based on studies done every six months since the U.S. invasion -- that the administration face up to the reality that the only choices for Iraq are how and how violently it will break up."

In a parallel series of reports, the Fund for Peace, a research and advocacy group, suggests a policy of managed partition for Iraq.

Ah, such a wonderful thought. Let's just split up Iraq and then we can all get along. Letting alone for the moment that this plan wholly ignores the surge, this is dangerously, if not suicidally, sophmoric.

As a threshold matter, allowing the Kurds to form their own country or anything resembling such an entity in the north is an invitation to a military response from Turkey and quite possibly Iran, neither of whom are willing to tolerate anything resembling a Kurdish state to emerge from Iraq. Both see such as a major threat, given their own large Kurdish populations. Turkey has been quite open about what their response will be.

Two, the Sunnis, including Sunni insurgents, are in open revolt against al Qaeda in Iraq and, in the Sunni stronghold of Anbar, it would appear that the Sunnis are joining with the government. The plan to subdivide Iraq completely ignores those realities. But there is more. It would abandon the Sunni areas to be reoccupied by the better funded, better armed and incredibly brutal al Qaeda. And al Qaeads
is fighting to establish an Islamic state or caliphate in Iraq, not simply a portion of Iraq.

Lastly, if not most importantly, it leaves Shia Iraq to fall wholly under the influence of Iran. Iran is doing all it can at the moment to influence the Iraqi government, and indeed, in Sadr's Mahdi Army, it has something that is beginning to resemble a Hezbollah like proxy force. The greatest brake on Iranian influence at the moment is that even now, Shia's only hold a plurality in Iraq's government and thus must look to Kurds and Sunni legislators to govern. Neither the Sunnis nor the Kurds appear willing to tolerate Iranian influence. Yet to follow the partition plan would be to abandon the majority of Iraq directly to Iran.

Thanks for reporting this as news, Washington Post. We salute you for your integrity and patriotism. And we wish that your stock prices go the way of the New York Times.

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Iraqi Insanity

There is the news of Coalition operations and successes (good). Then there is the MSM reporting on Iraq comprised of a list of friendly casualties and the successes of al Qaeda in Iraq and Iranian proxies (bad). Then there is the news coming out the senate confirmation hearings for the new "czar" for the Iraq and Afghanistan wars, LTG Lute (insanity).

The only places to learn what is going on in Iraq is through the military sites and milblogs. None of the information being posted by the MSM, and in particular the Washington Post or the NYT, is by any means complete. To the contrary, the Washington Post and New York Times reporting is often so one sided it could be written by al Qaeda's propoganda arm. Lest you think me partisan, do please read on.

From the DoD, here is what went on in Iraq in the past 24 plus hours:

Coalition forces today captured 32 suspected terrorists during a series of raids that targeted al Qaeda operations in Baghdad and western Iraq, officials said.

Coalition forces in central Iraq today detained 16 suspected terrorists during operations that targeted al Qaeda in Iraq leaders.

-- In three coordinated raids southeast of Fallujah, coalition forces detained 11 suspected terrorists with al Qaeda ties. Officials believed two of them are responsible for recruiting and facilitating terrorist cells in the area.

-- Coalition forces also captured a suspected al Qaeda in Iraq terrorist leader during a raid on two buildings in Hit. The individual allegedly replaced another senior leader who’d recently fled the area. Coalition forces detained three more suspected terrorists at the scene for their connection to al Qaeda senior leadership.

-- In continuing operations to disrupt the car-bomb network, coalition forces detained one suspected terrorist in Baghdad.

"Our methodical, sustained operations are making it more difficult for al Qaeda to operate, and we'll continue to apply pressure to eliminate their attacks against Iraqis and those who are working to secure the country's future," said Army Lt. Col. Christopher Garver, Multinational Force Iraq spokesman.

Also today in Iraq, coalition forces detained another 16 suspected terrorists during morning raids in Baghdad’s Sadr City neighborhood. The detainees captured in Sadr City are suspected members of a clandestine terrorist cell known for facilitating the transport of weapons and explosively formed penetrators from Iran to Iraq, as well as bringing militants from Iraq to Iran for terrorist training.

Four of the detainees tested positive for contact with explosives. Coalition officials cite intelligence reports indicating that one of the detainees is a key terrorist leader with ties to Iranian intelligence. This detainee is believed to be responsible for attacks on Iraqi civilians and Iraqi and coalition forces in Baghdad, officials said.

“We will seek out and find terrorists where they hide,” Garver said. “Removing the networks that bring in explosively formed penetrators is a top priority to protect the Iraqi people and the security forces that serve them.”

In operations yesterday, coalition forces operating in Baghdad killed two terrorists and detained 10 other people in raids targeting an al-Qaeda in Iraq car-bomb network.

The two men who were killed ran into a building and attempted to retrieve weapons visible inside. Coalition forces fired at the two men, killing them. Another suspected terrorist was detained on the scene, and three vehicles used to transport weapons and personnel for the terror cell were destroyed.

In five other raids conducted in Baghdad yesterday, coalition forces detained six suspected terrorists associated with the car-bomb network and destroyed two vehicles used to transport weapons and personnel for the cell. A related raid south of Tarmiyah netted three suspects tied to the terrorist group.

“Targeting the al Qaeda in Iraq (car-bomb) network is a top priority for coalition forces," Garver said. “We continue to work to reduce and eventually eliminate the ability of terrorists to attack innocent Iraqis.”

Meanwhile, Iraqi soldiers accompanied by coalition advisors seized four suspected al Qaeda operatives yesterday during raids on several residences in Saqlimiyah, officials said. No coalition or Iraqi troops were hurt in the operation.

Iraqi special operations troops detained four suspected assassins believed to be coordinating and conducting killings in the Baghdad area during a June 5 operation in Baghdad. While detaining the individuals, the Iraqi troops came under enemy fire. The Iraqi forces returned fire, and the engagement ended. No Iraqi or coalition forces, who’d served as advisors, were injured during the operation.

Read the entire story from the Dod here. Also from the DOD is this report on Iraqi police:

Iraq’s police force is seeing incremental improvements across the spectrum of its mandate, and the communities it serves are benefiting as a result, an official with the U.S. police-training mission said yesterday.

Tangible gains have been made in the police force’s relationships with the Iraqi ministries of defense and justice, judicial capacity is on the rise, corruption is being pursued internally, and the training program is continuing to expand, said Army Brig. Gen. David Phillips, deputy commander of the Civilian Police Assistance Training Team, in a conference call with online journalists and military “bloggers.”

The result is that day-to-day life in parts of Baghdad and Anbar province has improved dramatically in some cases as recruits continue to enter the police academies and enhanced police vigilance helps settle neighborhoods, Phillips said. . .

Read the entire articlehere. And here is an interesting report out of the 82nd Airborne about the building of the concrete walls in Baghdad's Adhamiyah neighborhood and its effects. Bill Rogio has an exceptional report on targeting Iranian proxies.

Now compare all of that reporting with this from today's Washington Post, "Suicide Attacks, Bombings Kill Dozens in Iraq":

Suicide attackers and car bombs struck targets in central, western and northern Iraq on Thursday, leaving at least 24 people dead and 42 wounded, Iraqi security officials said.

Gunmen also shot three professors from Islamic University in Baghdad, . . . and killed the head of the Education Ministry's department of research and development as he drove to work, police said.

"It is part of the campaign to attack every positive thing in Iraq," said an Education Ministry spokesman, Basil al-Khatib, who blamed the attacks on extremists who oppose modernity and want to drive "all elite and educated people from Iraq." He complained that the national government "is not acting" to prevent further attacks against teachers, "it only talks."

At least 211 university professors and 104 officials from the ministry have been assassinated in Iraq since the war started in March 2003, Khatib said. In addition, 91 professors have been kidnapped, and their fate is unknown, he said.

. . . On Thursday, gunmen fatally shot Sahar al-Haideri, a journalist working for the independent Aswat al-Iraqi news agency, . . . Her death followed the killings of 11 reporters and other media workers in Iraq in May, the deadliest month of the war for journalists, according to Reporters Without Borders.

In another sign of the fractures in Iraqi society, gunmen stormed a barbershop in the southern port city of Basra, . . . The barber was the 18th killed in Basra this year, the official said. The profession has been targeted by both Sunni and Shiite extremists seeking to punish Iraqis who embrace Western styles and customs.

Thursday's bombings began in Rabiyah, a northern town on the border with Syria, when a suicide attacker exploded a truck bomb at the local police headquarters, killing nine people and wounding 22, according to Nineveh provincial police commander Mohammed al-Wagga.

A short time later, a car bomber attacked a joint Iraqi-U.S. military facility, killing four British security contractors, he said. An official at the British Embassy said he was unaware of the incident.

A truck bomb exploded in a suicide attack at the traffic police headquarters outside Ramadi, about 55 miles west of Baghdad, on Thursday morning, killing three policemen and injuring four, Anbar provincial police Col. Jubair Rasheed said.

In a fourth attack, a car bomb exploded around lunchtime outside a falafel restaurant in the Shiite Talibiya neighborhood of eastern Baghdad, killing at least five people and wounding 16.

And a truck bomb explosion in Abu Ghraib, about 15 miles west of Baghdad, destroyed a Shiite mosque, damaged a Sunni one and killed two Iraqi army soldiers and an Iraqi civilian, the U.S. military reported.

. . . The U.S. military reported Thursday that an American soldier was killed and two were injured Wednesday by a roadside bomb in southwest Baghdad. The death brings to 3,504 the number of U.S. military deaths in Iraq since the March 2003 invasion, . . . A British soldier was killed and three were wounded Thursday by small-arms fire northwest of Basra, . . . It was the 150th British military death in the war, according to icasualties.org.

The U.S. military also reported a major airstrike and ground attack Tuesday that killed 19 insurgents sheltered in a house near Baqubah, about 25 miles northeast of the capital. A military statement said the insurgents had fired on a U.S.-Iraqi security patrol with small arms and rocket-propelled grenades, after which U.S. and Iraqi forces attacked the house with bombs, rockets and small arms. Two Iraqi army soldiers were killed in the fighting and two people, including a U.S. soldier, were injured.

Do believe me when I say that MSM reporting could well be written by al Qaeda. It is an utter travesty.

Then there was the insanity - the senate confirmation hearings for LTG Douglas Lute as war czar. Lute, an armor officer, does not support the counterinsurgency operations and seems to have a dim view of the Iraq government, all of which provided more fodder for Senate Democrats to attack the war in advance of September. It is kind of like hiring Ted Bundy to babysit your children. Just one in a long string of inexplicable acts by George Bush. And the insanity goes on . . .

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Washington Post Gives Only The Negative News from Iraq

Once again the WP does a news story on Iraq that concentrates wholly on the negative, including a list of U.S. casualties, with no mention of on-going U.S. operations nor enemy killed and captured. Read the travesty here. It is akin to the sports announcer: "Its the Yankees 3, and in other games . . . " How about those journalistic ethics?

The WP reports that al Qaeda in Iraq and an opposing Sunni Baathist insurgent group, the Islamic Army of Iraq, have declared a cease fire against each other in the Baghdad neighborhood of Amiriyah. The two groups fought each other for several days over the past week. The WP also reports four U.S. soldiers were killed in Iraq, several relative minor carbombings occurred, and that 4 million Iraqis have been according to the UN High Commissioner for Refugees.

The WP ignores all positive news from Iraq. For example, the military reported today that coalition forces killed four terrorists, detained 23 others, and discovered multiple weapons caches during recent operations targeting al Qaeda in Iraq. That same report tells of significant cooperation by local Iraqi's and of Iraqi police foiling a suicide bombers targeting police recruits. You might also wish to review graphs of US and insurgent casualties during the surge. And you can find a discussion of the growth of Iraqi forces - growing at a very fast pace - here. The bottom line, it is not possible to rely on the Washington Post as a sole source for accurate reporting from Iraq.

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A Tale of Two Iraqs

This is a tale of two polar opposite views of Iraq. Since both purport to tell objective fact on the same topic, only one can be true. The first is written by an influential left wing British think tank. The author drafted it safely in the confines of London. That study was recently relied upon by the Washington Post for the proposition that Iraq is a lost cause. The second is written by a former soldier who has spent most of the last four plus years embedded with troops in Iraq and Afganistan. He is currently living with the Marines in Anbar province. His reporting is routinely ignored by the Washington Post, along with the rest of the MSM. The first view of Iraq comes from a study by Chatham House. The second view comes from Michael Yon.

First, the view of Chatham House, whose study on Iraq the Washington Post cited the other day. I posted:

[The WP] headline is "60 Die in Iraq, Study Warns of Collapse." . . .

The WP quotes liberally from the study's conclusions - mostly to give a very contrarian view to statements by our own U.S. Ambassador in Iraq. But the WP does not quote from the Chatham House study's underlying findings, few if any of which seem supported by fact.

For example, Al Qaeda in Iraq is under extreme pressure, having been largely driven into Diyala Province from its former bases in Anbar Province and Baghdad. Indeed, one major change on the ground in Iraq that is extremely well documented has been the success of the locals in Anbar Province turning on Al Qaeda in Iraq and, with MNF support, driving them largely out of the province. Its been so successful that Marines in Ramadi are complaining of boredom and monotony. Nonetheless, in asserting that things are only getting worse in Iraq, Chatham House actually roots for al Qaeda, ascribing to them the big mo' while downplaying the incredible success of the Anbar Salvation Council:

Al-Qaeda has a very real presence in Iraq that has spread to the major cities of the centre and north of the country, including Baghdad, Kirkuk and Mosul. Although Al-Qaeda’s position is challenged by local actors, it is a mistake to exaggerate the ability of tribal groups and other insurgents to stop the momentum building behind its operations in Iraq.

This gives a bit of the flavor that thoroughly infests the Chatham House Study. They do the same for the Mahdi Army and downplay recent moves by the SICI to switch allegiance to Grand Ayatollah Sistani. . . .

Do please read the Chatham House Study. Then read this e-mail from Michael Yon sent yesterday to Glen Reynolds and that Glen posts on his site, Instapundit. It discusses life at the moment in Anbar Province after the "local actors" decided to challenge Al Qaeda a few months ago:

Am still in Anbar and just went another day without hearing a single shot fired. Am out with a small group of Marines who live with a much larger group of Iraqis. I enjoy the Iraqi food more than the food at the dining facilities. . . .

I was told that a chemical munition (artillery shell) was found within the last few days.

Today, went on a patrol with Iraqis and a couple of Marines and we talked with Iraqi villagers for a couple of hours. I got to talk with a man who was about 81. His hearing was not good, so I had to sit close. He said he worked for the British RAF here in about 1945-46. I asked him if the British treated him well and he said they treated him very well. Said he made the equivalent of about 25 cents per day but that was good money back then. There is, in fact, a British-Polish-Indian-Aussie-Kiwi cemetery nearby. (I visited and photographed many of the headstones some days ago.)

All the villagers we got to talk with were very friendly. Kids wanted their photos taken, that sort of thing. They were not asking for candy and that was nice. There was a train track nearby (looked to be in very good condition), and a locomotive turned over on its side, derailed. I asked a man what happened, and he said that about four years ago, during the war, an "Ali Baba" (thief) tried to steal the train but ran head-on into another train! He said the police caught the Ali Baba and he has no idea what happened after that.

Marines are getting along well with the locals. They wave a lot, and stop to talk. If the rest of Iraq looked like this, we could all come home!

So who do you think is giving us an accurate picture of Iraq and the effects of the "local actors?" Well, at least we know whom the Washington Post would have us believe. As Bernard Lewis let's us know, leaving Iraq now is fraught with extreme peril and long term consequences for us and the world. So why is the Washington Post unquestioningly citing to a Chatham House study so obviously flawed?

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The Washington Post & Chatham House - Two Sides Of One Sided Reporting

There is little new about today's Washington Post reporting on Iraq. It is its usual one sided anti-war self, giving a count of friendly casualties while ignoring all else in Iraq. Reading the news about the Iraq War in the Washington Post is like getting half of all the baseball scores. "In baseball today, its the Orioles 3, and in other games . . ."

If you want a realistic view of ongoing operations in Iraq - at least other then al Qaeda and Iranian successes - one must go to sources outside of the Washington Post to places such as here (coalition kills 4, captures 30 al Qaeda terrorists), here (soldier receives silver star for bravery in combat), here (Iraqi SOF capture terrorist leader in Basra), or here (Iraqi police ops kill two insurgents, capture 51). I could go on, but I am sure you get the idea. The Washington Post's reporting on Iraq is so one sided as to be despicable.

The Washington Post does go slightly beyond the norm today. Their headline is "60 Die in Iraq, Study Warns of Collapse." In the body of their story, the WP does not link to the study. I will though. Here. Its from the Chatham House in the UK.

The WP quotes liberally from the study's conclusions - mostly to give a very contrarian view to statements by our own U.S. Ambassador in Iraq. But the WP does not quote from the Chatham House study's underlying findings, few if any of which seem supported by fact.

For example, Al Qaeda in Iraq is under extreme pressure, having been largely driven into Diyala Province from its former bases in Anbar Province and Baghdad. Indeed, one major change on the ground in Iraq that is extremely well documented has been the success of the locals in Anbar Province turning on Al Qaeda in Iraq and, with MNF support, driving them largely out of the province. Its been so successful that Marines in Ramadi are complaining of boredom and monotony. Nonetheless, in asserting that things are only getting worse in Iraq, Chatham House actually roots for al Qaeda, ascribing to them the big mo' while downplaying the incredible success of the Anbar Salvation Council:

Al-Qaeda has a very real presence in Iraq that has spread to the major cities of the centre and north of the country, including Baghdad, Kirkuk and Mosul. Although Al-Qaeda’s position is challenged by local actors, it is a mistake to exaggerate the ability of tribal groups and other insurgents to stop the momentum building behind its operations in Iraq.

This gives a bit of the flavor that thoroughly infests the Chatham House Study. They do the same for the Mahdi Army and downplay recent moves by the SICI to switch allegance to Grand Ayatollah Sistani. In truth, the report reads much more like a fantasy drafted by Harry "we've lost the war and the surge has failed so let's leave before the '08 election" Reid then any reasonable attempt to ascertain reality in Iraq. That certainly does not stop the Washington Post from referring to it and trumpeting its findings over the opposing views expressed by Ambassador Coker. It only stops the Washington Post from linking to the report.

Do read the article here, then you decide. And if you are tired of the Washington Posts one sided reporting, do let the WP (foreign@washpost.com) and the article's author know. Don't you think it is about time to start to demand some balance from the nation's supposedly objective journalists in MSM?

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A Washington Post Travesty

Wholly one sided on the facts and positing highly dubious opinion, the lead "news" article in today's Washington Post is blatant propoganda in support of those who desire a retreat from Iraq. At the end of this post are e-mail addresses and phone numbers. The Washington Post and our elected representatives need to hear about this. They need to hear us screaming bloody murder.

Today's lead article in the Washington Post is "April Toll Is Highest Of '07 for U.S. Troops" by Sudarsan Raghavan and Karin Brulliard. The first part of the article is nothing more then a gruesome itemization of U.S. and Iraqi casualties. Absent from the article or any related stories is a mention of even a single positive accomplishment by coalition forces during the month of April. It is not balanced news from Iraq; rather, it is a macabre requiem. The second part of the article, wholly unrelated to article's thesis, is a message that Iraq is emeshed in a civil war and our soldiers are dying needlessly. And wait until you see just how disingenuous the Washington Post is in providing us with that opinion.

The article begins with:

The deaths of more than 100 American troops in April made it the deadliest month so far this year for U.S. forces in Iraq, underscoring the growing exposure of Americans as thousands of reinforcements arrive for an 11-week-old offensive to tame sectarian violence.

More than 60 Iraqis also were killed or found dead across Iraq on Monday. . . .

Attacks killed a total of nine U.S. troops over the weekend, including five whose deaths were announced Monday. . . .

Under the new counterinsurgency plan, many U.S. forces have left large, more secure bases to live in small combat outposts and to patrol hostile neighborhoods where the risk of insurgents targeting them has multiplied.

Highlighting the vulnerability of American forces, a series of explosions Monday night rocked Baghdad's Green Zone, . . .

. . . Local Iraqi television stations reported 10 explosions inside the zone. There were no immediate reports of casualties, Garver said.

In eastern Baghdad on Sunday, a roadside bomb killed three U.S. soldiers and an Iraqi interpreter who were on patrol, . . .

Before the deaths announced Monday, 99 U.S. soldiers had been killed during April, according to iCasualties.org, . . .

With 11 combat deaths, April also was the deadliest month for British troops in Iraq since the beginning of the war, . . .

The deaths came as the largest bloc of Sunnis in Iraq's parliament, the Iraqi Accordance Front, threatened to pull out its ministers from the cabinet, saying that it "had lost hope" in having Sunni concerns addressed by the Shiite-led government. . . .

In the province of Diyala, where scores of fighters have fled to escape the Baghdad security offensive, a car bomb exploded near a funeral tent in the town of Khalis, . . .

The strike came four days after a suicide attacker detonated a car packed with bombs at a checkpoint in the town, 50 miles north of Baghdad, killing 10 Iraqi soldiers.

Near the Sunni insurgent stronghold of Ramadi, a car bomb exploded at a police checkpoint, . . .

In Baghdad, a car bomb exploded in the al-Jihad neighborhood, killing four and wounding another seven, . . .

Meanwhile, police found 13 corpses -- all blindfolded, handcuffed and shot in the head -- in different parts of the capital. . . .

Let's stop here for a moment and review just a few of the other news items coming out of Iraq in the past week. These are the ones that for some reason receive no mention in the Washington Post lead article, nor do they appear in related articles:

April 21 - Operation Commando Dive in the Shubayshen area, just south of Baghdad, led to the detentions of almost 50 detainees and a number of cache finds.

April 22 - U.S. and Iraqi forces raid a Mahmudiyah apartment complex, detaining eight suspected extremists and discovering three caches of Iranian explosives and arms.

April 22 - Coalition Forces in raids near Fallujah killed one terrorist, detained 19 others, and found large amounts of chemicals used to make IEDs, several weapons and bomb-making accessories, including more than 50 pressure plates and a suicide vest.

April 23 - Coalition Forces detained 19 suspected terrorists associated with facilitating foreign fighters, working with al-Qaeda in Iraq and operating a vehicle-borne improvised explosive device network Monday.

April 24 - Iraqi Security Forces and Multi-National Division – Baghdad troops uncovered a weapons cache at the Al Nur Mosque in Baghdad’s Jihadneighborhood April 23 thanks to a tip from local residents.

April 24 - Coalition Forces detained 10 suspected terrorists and uncovered a cache of weapons in several operations in central Iraq Tuesday.

April 24 - Coalition Forces provide supplies and equipment to Iraqi Pediatric Hospital.

April 25 - Coalition Forces detained six supected terrorists in multiple raids targeting senior al-Qaeda in Iraq leaders and a group that provides foreign fighters to the al Qaeda.

April 26 - Coalition Forces killed three terrorists during an operation in Sadr City targeting a network that trains terrorists for operations in Iraq.

April 27 - Iraqi SOF and US advisors captured 7 terrrorists and destroyed two vehicles rigged with explosives.

April 28 - In Tikrit, local citizens in led Iraqi Army, police and Coalition Forces to more than 20 caches and assisted in capturing five suspected terrorists and engagements that left approximately 25 anti-Iraq forces dead. The security forces also discovered and cleared more than 20 IEDs emplaced throughout the neighborhood.

April 28 - Coalition Forces captured 17 suspected terrorists during a series of overnight raids targeting al-Qaeda in Iraq Saturday. Included in the capture was an intelligence officer for al-Qaeda in Iraq and a group responsible for murders, kidnappings, the manufacture of improvised explosive devices.

April 28 - Coalition forces interdicted an al Qaeda attack on a girls school south of Baghdad.

April 29 - Coalition Forces captured 72 suspected terrorists and discovered bomb-making materials during a constellation of overnight raids targeting the al-Qaeda in Iraq network.

April 30 - Iraqi Special Operations Forces have launched a raid aimed at the capture of a key individual linked to alleged death squad activity and attacks against coalition forces in Basrah

April 30 - Coalition forces discovered two improvised explosive devices and a weapons cache southwest of Baghdad today.

The above is just some of the hard news coming out of Iraq over about the last week. Would it be responsible for a news organization to include this information along with the roll call of al Qaeda attacks and U.S. deaths? Or if not with it, then in related articles? It would be not only be responsible, but incumbent, actually. And the utter failure to do so makes this Washington Post hit piece not but propoganda of the worst sort.

Please note that the majority of articles linked above concern raids and fights involving al Qaeda in Iraq and some involving Iranian backed forces. If the majority of our efforts are targeting al Qaeda and Iranian trained and supplied Shia death squads, we are by definition not involving ourselves in a civil war. It would almost appear to the untrained eye that that we are primarilly fighting radical Islamists - the same folks who killed hundreds of Americans before 9-11 in the case of Iran, and who killed thousands of Americans on 9-11, in the case of al Qaeda.

But you will find no such analysis in the Washington Post's lead story. There is no mention of the vast decrease in sectarian violence, nor the primary targets of our most recent combat actions in Iraq. Instead, the Washington Post gives us this gem of ethically challenged reporting:

On Monday, U.S. troops at Camp Victory, a sprawling base near Baghdad International Airport, reflected on April's deadly toll on their comrades.

Sitting at a picnic table outside a recreation center, four soldiers smoked Marlboros under a starry sky. Part of the Headquarters Headquarters Support Company for the 3rd Infantry Division out of Fort Stewart, Ga., they had arrived last month. They were on the base, just "sweeping parking lots and waiting for a sandstorm," as Pfc. Richard Gonzalez, 22, put it.

Still, they said, frequent news of troop deaths made even their mission more frightening.

"It makes me feel depressed to be in Iraq right now," said Gonzalez, who is on his second deployment. "It's a whole lot different than last time."

Now, he said, soldiers at the base must carry weapons. Return addresses on letters from home must be ripped off and burned, so as not to fall into the wrong hands. On his first deployment, eight months passed before his Baghdad base was hit by mortar fire. This time, he said, it seems the Camp Victory intercom announces incoming fire every day.

"There's a whole lot more activity," said Spec. Krystal Fowler, 21, of Hampton, Va. She said it "kind of bothers" her to know other troops are taking hits in the field and she can't help.

Spec. Natisha Jetter, 23, of Charlotte Amalie, St. Thomas, in the Virgin Islands, agreed.

"Our fellow soldiers are out there dying, and we're here not doing our job," Jetter said.

Gonzalez said the deaths made him realize that "there's a war going on out there."

Fowler sighed. It's a war between Iraqis, she said.

"We are just interfering, and letting our soldiers die." . . .

Can you believe this tripe? This is a reporter in the green zone fishing for a quote from anybody that will put the Iraq war effort in a bad light, and they seek out quite literally the least qualified source imaginable to print. They chose a junior enlisted soldier in a non-combat specialty, one who is assigned to division headquarters who has never set foot one outside of the green zone, to establish that Iraq is in a state civil war and we need to get out. To put this in some perspective, that would be like interviewing an elementary school's janitor to determine what is occurring in a university board meeting across the street. It is absolutely outrageous and so incredibly disingenuous that it is stomach turning.

There is not a thing ethical about this Washington Post lead article. It is so over the top in its defeatism, so selective in its facts and assertions, and so lacking in any balance as to be a far left opinion piece designed to decrease support for the war. A century ago it would have been tagged as yellow journalism. It is most decidedly not the news.

Ladies and gentleman, if you value your national security, then we cannot stand for this kind of ethically challenged reporting from our main stream media. Please, read this whole article here, and then jam the phone lines and the e-mails of the Washington Post to let them know just how you feel. And while your at it, see if you can't get your elected representatives off their sorry asses to respond to the Washington Post also

Authors:
Sudarsan Raghavan and Karin Brulliard

Washington Post:
Newspaper Information: www.washpost.com

Newsroom:

Main Phone: 202.334.6000 / 800.627.1150

Letters to the Editor:
The Washington Post
1150 15 St. NW
Washington, DC 20071

and by e-mail at:
letters@washpost.com

Your Elected Officials:

Senators

Representative

(H/T Mudville Gazette)

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WASHINGTON POST DISINGENUOUS ON THE IRANIAN ISSUE

In an article today discussing the problems the U.S. is facing in getting the U.N. Security Council to back any meaningful sanctions against Iran for their failure to stop the march towards acquisition of nuclear weapons, the Post states: "Not all parties agree on the seriousness of the threat from Iran or how best to contain it. Of the five permanent members of the U.N. Security Council, Russia and China have resisted tough sanctions." Either the Post is naive, which they are not, or they are being disingenuous. No one can doubt the seriousness of the threat that the bellicose theocracy of Iran to the West or to the Sunni countries in the Middle East. Both Russia and China have extensive economic ties with Iran and see Iran as a card to play against the U.S. and the West in a game of power politics. They are allies of convenience with Iran at the moment. It seems clear, in this and other articles by the Washington Post of late, that they are attempting to muddy the waters wherever possible in order to lessen any justification for military action against Iran.

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WASHINGTON POST SPINNING LEFT

The surge is on -- for the U.S. and Iraqi military. The anti-surge is on for the Washington Post. They are burying the hard news on the surge -- which happens to be favorable. Moreover, they are trumpeting a poll as front page news -- and the poll is suspect.

The strategy of the surge is very clear. The goal of course is to significantly improve the security situation in Baghdad. To this end, we are moving Iraqi military units, each supported by a battalion or more of U.S. combat troops, into ten areas of the city and taking up permanent positions. It is a strategy that is 180 degrees from what we've done previously, where the goal was to minimize U.S. footprint.

How the surge will work is two fold. The presence of troops within cantonment areas throughout the city will have a much higher profile, making insurgents and militias act much more circumspect. Two, it will provide much more daily interaction with citizens for both Iraqi and U.S. soldiers with the goal of earning the citizen's trust -- and it is tips from those citizens that will ultimately allow the surge to succeed in cleaning up Baghdad. Both of those things will take time to bear significant fruit, but some of the impact has been immediate and promising.

This is from the lead article today in the WP, penned by Joshua Partlow:

At the end of the first week of the security crackdown, Caldwell announced, without providing statistics, a "very significant" decrease in such sectarian violence, while cautioning that it was premature to judge the plan's success.

Death tolls in February provided by an official at the Baghdad morgue, who is not authorized to speak publicly, appear to support Caldwell's statement. The official said that from Feb. 1 to Feb. 13, the bodies of 806 people who died as a result of violence were brought to the morgue, including 211 unidentified bodies, many of them bound, shot and showing signs of torture. Over the next nine days, 244 bodies were brought in, among them 58 unidentified corpses.

But there is still a bunker mentality among residents of the capital, who are afraid to venture out for any but the most necessary errands. The owner of a deserted fabric shop in Baghdad's Zayuna neighborhood, Manaf Ali, said his children continue to attend school only once a week because he is afraid for their lives. A goldsmith working next door at al-Faiq shopping center, Haider Mohammed, 31, sleeps on the floor of an unfurnished apartment close to his shop rather than travel to work from his embattled Sunni neighborhood of Adhamiyah. Both men carry guns.

"How can we notice any change in the streets? We are just like chickens, staying in our cages," Mohammed said. "I am a goldsmith. What am I doing carrying a gun?"

To Ali, 41, there are only small signs of increased order. He welcomes the presence of more soldiers on the streets, and sees fewer Shiite militiamen. "Thank God now the mass abductions and the militias seem to be slowing down, and we are only left with
the suicide bombs and car bombs," he said.

Along Palestine Street, a once vibrant commercial district, shop owners were relieved not by the greater military presence, but by the absence of Mahdi Army militiamen from neighboring Sadr City, the impoverished Shiite district and militia stronghold. The owner of a photography studio, a Sunni, pulled from his wallet a receipt for the "tax" that militiamen extract from merchants for their protection. Another merchant said he, too, faced extortion, which costs the equivalent of $30 a month. This month, the "savages" have not been around to collect, said the studio owner, who would not allow his name to be published.

"There needs to be raids against the militias, and not only in Sadr City," said Ahmed Abdul Rahman, 29, who works in an art gallery on Palestine Street. "Until then, this is not real."

Now that is the real news on the surge. For the first week of the surge, I would deem that news to be very promising. But if you read Mr. Partlow's actual article, you will not find these paragraphs until the very end, and only after a very long winded discussion of all the difficulties and negatives of both the surge and of the Iraqi units involved. In other words, this was either the author or an editor doing their best to minimize the solid news.

Lest you think me overly critical, the Washington Post front page companion piece is that of a poll of 1,000 people that they interpret as showing that the American people support, by a substantial margin, Democratic efforts "to handle Iraq." If that were true, we would already have a bill in Congress to defund the war. This poll is very suspect. The WP does not tell us the political persuasion of those polled, nor what adjustments to the poll were made. In other words, this poll has 0 credibility.

My own rule number 1 -- Polls, always subject to manipulation -- particularly those on highly charged topics -- ARE NOT NEWS. God forbid we should ever govern by polls.

What we see here is the Washington Post spinning like a top to the left side of the aisle.

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