The CURRENT status of Operation Iraqi Freedom and latest Senate debate

[Bruxley]

With the Senate voting to hold debate on the most recent Operation Iraqi Freedom bill and various threads veering into the subject containing so much old information about Iraq, it's time to re-visit the subject.

The Senate leaders periodically put up a bill to stop funding OIF and demand withdrawal timelines on Iraq. Political timing usually and given the split on who will be the nominee for the Democrats it must have seemed like time to put up the token bill again to solidify the party. Only 2 months ago they approved funding and no new funding is being requested right now. But to their surprise the Republicans all but unanimously voted FOR bringing it to debate.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dy...02/26/AR2008022602452.html?hpid=moreheadlines

The bill has no chance of actually passing because not only will the Republicans not vote to pass it but half of the Democrats won't either. It's the DEBATE the Republicans want. An accounting of the genuine progress, even political progress, taking place in Iraq without the clouding of aged argument, hyperbole, and political rhetoric.

The facts, the actual CURRENT situation being brought to the fore is what the Senate Republicans and many Democrats want brought out. That is also what this thread is about. What the reality of the situation is in Iraq and of OIF.

'Doesn't matter' won't fly. If you really feel it doesn't matter then hit the back button and find a thread you feel does.

Fact based arguments have weight over hyperbole and sloganeering.

Goal - the truth about what the actual situation is and debate on the benefits of either finishing or withdrawing. Too many people aren't aware of the actual condition of OIF.

 

[Bruxley]

Silence.......

The media has taken the same tact.

Yes, there was “Iraq fatigue” in the media following his report, but it’s hard to believe the New York Times would not have mustered the strength to report a resurgence by al-Qaeda or failures by American forces, had those occurred.

For quite some time, the mainstream media trumpeted the narrative of inevitable defeat in Iraq. General Petraeus’s testimony — and the facts it outlined — disrupted this narrative. Facing an acute case of “writer’s block,” the storyteller refused to change his story, and instead, fell silent.

As dishonest as this silence is, it’s still better than the public statements of the Democratic leadership in Congress, who persist in spreading the false narrative of inevitable defeat in Iraq. Senator Harry Reid, for instance, continues to poison public opinion with inaccurate descriptions of al-Qaeda’s growing strength — months after the surge’s success had become widely reported and recognized. Apparently, Reid never got the memo.

The relative media silence I noted in September continued — and intensified — throughout October and November. As the good news from Iraq increased (American combat deaths down, and overall violence plummeting) the corresponding news coverage from Iraq decreased. How, could this be? It couldn’t all be media bias, could it?

Well, as I sit here in Kuwait, waiting for a flight to Baghdad, I’ve been chewing the fat with two sergeants from the Army’s Public Affairs Office (PAO). And early in our conversation, one of them remarked, “the flow of journalists coming through here has been a bit slow lately.” So I asked what the flow has looked like over the past year.

He pulled up the statistics, and sure enough, they tell a story. There was a significant increase of journalists headed to Iraq in late August 2007, reaching an apex in early September. Following the Petraeus hearings, there was a sharp decline — over 65 percent — in the number journalists making the trip from Kuwait into Iraq in late September, October, and November. Then the numbers climbed back up in December and January.

These numbers aren’t definitive, because most of the major outlets have a Baghdad bureau and send reporters directly to Baghdad, rather than through Kuwait. However, the likes of Fox News Channel, Wall Street Journal, Los Angeles Times, Minneapolis Star-Tribune, and Atlanta-Journal Constitution have all come through the PAO in Kuwait. These sergeants have their finger on the pulse of media interest in Iraq. And that interest is weakening, even as our prognosis for success improves.

If there’s no one there to cover the progress we’re making in Iraq, how will it reach the American people?

The media, en masse, will cover major events like General Petraeus’s testimony in September, and historic benchmarks like the one-year anniversary of the surge. But this is only periodic coverage; bombings and attacks win consistent coverage. Even in our interconnected world, without a body on the ground to report on the slow, steady, mundane progress we’re making, good news won’t make the news. Only dead bodies on the ground are front-page material.

Not a groundbreaking revelation, but a relevant one. The motto of the PAO section here in Kuwait is “Public Opinion Wins War” — and they’re mostly right. Soldiers and Marines on the front lines win wars, but they can’t do so without the support of their fellow citizens. To maintain that support, they need someone to tell their story.

NR editor Rich Lowry helped do just that in his recent report from Hamada. Now I hope to hitch a ride to Baghdad in a few hours, to do my part.

 

[GM-GUY]

It's due to the wonderful 'Freedom of the Press', not the Constitutional kind.

The kind that tells me about Britney Spears, that dude that died of an OD, the other one that got busted DWI, and so on.....

Our troops are doing a great job, I run into guys coming back and going over again and they all say the same thing - it's getting better, we have them on the run.

Back to my first point, that doesn't sell papers.


Could we have done things differently, sure. Would I, you, your brother have done something differently, probably. But I differ to Murphy "No plan survives first contact, intact".

Would I (personally) care if we glassed the place over, no. Is that the correct thing to do, no. Of course, I don't have to hedge my bets and play the 10+ iterations of if we do this, they do that game either.

My letters and calls to the politicians always include a "Let them Win", "Get out of their way", "Stop the PC madness" line. Our Military needs our support, and our resolve to let them do what has to be done WITHOUT FEAR OF LEGAL or POLITICAL RAMMIFICATION.