One of the most valuable resources for keeping informed about what's going on in Iraq is Arthur Chrenkoff's phenomenal series of articles on Good News from Iraq. This monthly feature is now in its 33rd installment, and he has done what most of us don't have the time and resources to do and gone through every possible source, and used his unique contacts inside Iraq to come up with a comprehensive summary of all the positive things which are happening in Iraq which the media around the world chooses to ignore. Not to blame them - they are stuck in the 'if it bleeds, it leads' mentality, and can't sell a lot of papers based on electricity production figures and school openings. But too few people outside of Iraq realize that for every terrorist attack there, a dozen good things are happening to make the lives of everyday Iraqis better.
So here are some quick highlights gleaned from the hundreds of news items Chrenkoff has gathered. Please note that this is a tiny fraction of what he has to report and it's just a summary. If you're astonished by all the good news, he has the full descriptions with links to sources and all his previous installments on his site.
On Security...
Attacks damaging infrastructure like roads and powerplants are down enormously, from 41 per month last year to an average of 7 per month since February.
Iraqi forces have successfully shut down most terrorist operations in Diyala province, which had been one of the most violentin the country. They are lifting curfews and life is returning to normal. Towns like Bahraz which were under rebel control are not at peace and under government protection.
Mortar attacks are down all over Iraq compared to last year, with a 50% drop in western Mosul where they had been common.
Car bombings are now a thing of the past in Sulaimaniya where Arif Anwar, an ER surgeon commented to a reporter "Car bomb? Are you joking? We don't have anything like that. The biggest problem we have here is car accidents — too many car accidents." He works in a newly built and totally modern wing of the Sulaimaniya hospital.
Also in Sulaimaniyah 1816 new police recruits just graduated from training academies, bringing the total of trained officers there to over 40,000.
Article comments
— go to most recent comments1 - billy
this is absurd, you are rah-rahing things of no significance, and in fact we are paying for all this with OUR tax dollars for a foreign country, when we are deeply in debt.
A true republican would be furious at the reckless spending you described if it was done for the USA. to spend this cash on Iraq is a crime.
2 - Dave Nalle
I posted this less than a minute before you responded. I seriously doubt that you've had time to even skim the content, much less follow the links and read any of the more detailed information.
And this post isn't about the spending issues - they're an entirely separate concern. It's about Iraq and where things stand there. Plus, if you'd actually bothered to read the piece, you'd notice that minimal amounts of US money are involved in most of these projects, which are being funded by international loans or foreign companies and investors.
Dave
3 - billy
Are you serious?
"a US-built facility with computers, scanners, color copiers, laptops, CD burners, high-speed Internet and satellite news channels at the disposal of local and international journalists.
Additional new equipment includes 30 English-learning programs with headsets, an LCD projector, a scanner, a color copier, dozens of memory sticks, hundreds of blank CDs and floppy discs, CD writers and dozens of computer programs. This new equipment joins the satellite dishes, TVs, laser printers, copier, computers, refrigerators and other high-tech gadgets already being used by journalists."
and we cant do this for our own schools and we need to cut social security, like bush said.
give me a break. you are more dedicated to iraq than america and it is getting tiresome.
america is my first priority, why isnt it yours?
4 - Matt
Dave--Chrenkoff's thinking that the news should show "all of the good things" is so naive. People slow down at car accidents to watch. Its how we're hard wired. Its really not political at all. Its ratings book and ad dollars. The news orgs know what sells paper. If all the news orgs started giving us the shiny happy stuff, there would be someone else ready to point out the death and destructyion, and they'll steal the ratings.
I concur with Billy--let's spend a little less making Iraq such a great nation, and put some into strengthening our borders so these freaks can't get in.
Chrenkoff's website is tantamount to Pravda.
5 - Dave Nalle
>>and we cant do this for our own schools<<
Our local public schools have all of that. And these facilities are for only 4 schools out of hundreds in the entire nation of Iraq. Give me a break.
>> and we need to cut social security, like bush said. <<
That's a whole different issue and not related in even the vaguest way.
>>give me a break. you are more dedicated to iraq than america and it is getting tiresome.
america is my first priority, why isnt it yours?<<
Because I'm not a loony isolationist.
Nice to see you managed to read one paragraph of the article, though.
Dave
6 - billy
you are more dedicated to rebuilding iraq than the USA. if you think this will help drum up support for bush by highliting how he is going all out for iraq and neglecting the us at the same time, i think you are mistaken. this is like throwing salt in his 36% approval rating wound.
7 - Dave Nalle
>>Dave--Chrenkoff's thinking that the news should show "all of the good things" is so naive. <<
This is NOT what Chrenkoff believes. He just thinks that someone ought to be out there presenting the positive news that people don't get from the media. As I said in my introduction there are good reasons why the media focuses on what it does, but this stuff is important too.
>>People slow down at car accidents to watch. Its how we're hard wired. Its really not political at all. Its ratings book and ad dollars. The news orgs know what sells paper. If all the news orgs started giving us the shiny happy stuff, there would be someone else ready to point out the death and destructyion, and they'll steal the ratings. <<
This is virtually a paraphrase of my introductory comment on the media.
>>I concur with Billy--let's spend a little less making Iraq such a great nation, and put some into strengthening our borders so these freaks can't get in.<<
One way to keep them out is to make them want to stay where they are.
>>Chrenkoff's website is tantamount to Pravda.<<
I agree if you make that a lower case 'p' in pravda.
Dave
8 - Nancy
I have to agree - but not with Dave: we are spending far too much for Iraq when we ourselves are dealing with crumbling infrastructure & deficient services & facilities. When our own house is in order, then we can think about building state of the art whatevers in other countries' yards. America first!
9 - Dave Nalle
>>you are more dedicated to rebuilding iraq than the USA. if you think this will help drum up support for bush by highliting how he is going all out for iraq and neglecting the us at the same time, i think you are mistaken. this is like throwing salt in his 36% approval rating wound.<<
Why do you think I give a rat's ass about Bush's approval rating? This isn't about domestic politics, it's about letting people know what is really going on in Iraq since they seem to be so ignorant.
Look at Shark and his endless posting of "Iraq is a Fucking Disaster". This is intended to counter to some degree that knee-jerk, ill-informed rhetoric with fact.
Dave
10 - Dave Nalle
>>I have to agree - but not with Dave: we are spending far too much for Iraq when we ourselves are dealing with crumbling infrastructure & deficient services & facilities. When our own house is in order, then we can think about building state of the art whatevers in other countries' yards. America first!<<
Did you not SEE the recent highway bill? It alone is almost 100 times the total amount we're spending on reconstruction in Iraq. Give me a break. We're not building a paradise in Iraq, we're just helping to get them on their feet.
And as I said before, the best way to produce stability in the middle east is to introduce modern culture and prosperity.
Dave
11 - Matt
"We're not building a paradise in Iraq, we're just helping to get them on their feet."
That's not our job.
12 - Dave Nalle
Matt, what do you think our job is now that we've invaded their country and deposed their government? Perhaps we should just line them all up and shoot them? Or would gas chambers be cheaper? I guess we could just let them have a bigass civil war with hundreds of thousands dead - would that make you feel good?
Dave
13 - Rich
Dave,
Seems like your trying to defend Arthur Chrenkoff with his views of the "positives" in Iraq. Your in for a lot more postings to defend this window dressing.
Would a true conservative want to spend 1 billion US dollars a week on anything?
Or do you believe 1 billion US tax dollars a week is yet more "ill informened rehetoric" by the left?
Maybe you are a defense contractor and welcome all this spending. The contractors are just about the only ones the neocons are helping.
Isn't there about 8 billion not accounted for? Where is is the outrage from the conservatives, where is that money?
In this context it seems like term "conservative" is just a label without meaning.
Lets get some congressional oversight on all this waste of US tax money.
--Rich
14 - Nancy
What is this 'we'? 'We' never wanted to get involved in Iraq to begin with; that was Bush's big project, fostered with lies, misrepresentations, and all kinds of other baloney. At this point, yeah - I think letting them do what they've been doing for thousands of years and just letting them go for each others' throats would be fine.
15 - Matt
Dave--there's probably going to be a civil war once we leave, anyway? Then they'll get a chance to undo everything we blew billions of dollars on. Or maybe we'll never leave.
Your boy Bush had this all figured out ahead of time, didn't he?
16 - Scott C. Smith
The problem with rah-rah Iraq-is-great posts like this one is that it ignores real issues of importance. For instance, many Iraqis go without electricity for hours at a time. In 120-degree heat.
Or the miles-long lines for gasoline.
Or the 50-60% unemployment rate.
Since reports from the WHO are quoted, here are some other items from the WHO regarding Iraq:
http://www.who.int/hac/crises/irq/en/
"The military conflict of March/April 2003 with the following looting and civil unrest led to a further disruption of water treatment and supply plants, of sanitation facilities and power production plants and to the destruction of the remaining medical equipment in health facilities."
Meanwhile, the infant mortality rate is at 50.25 deaths per thousand on average. As a comparison, the infant mortality rate in Saudi Arabia is 13.24 deaths per thousand on average. In the United States, it is only 6.5 per thousand on average. (This data from the CIA World Factbook). So while right-wingers celebrate cell phone infrastructure improvements in Iraq, we ignore the situation that results in such a high infant mortality rate.
So...the priority is to build facilities with computers and scanners? We'll just fix water treatment plants later?
Iraq is a disaster, and all of the sleight-of-hand tricks conservatives are using to distract attention away from the real reality is not going to work.
17 - Shark
Davey, although I think you look great in a tight sweater, a short skirt, and wavin' little Pom-Poms --
I don't think yer gonna get too far with the average American -- y'know... trotting out all the millions and billions of DOLLARS and listing the "projects" we've financed for these Iraqi strangers on the other side of the planet.
Sorry.
Damned if ya do; damned if ya don't.
-----
My advice: talk about how much cheap oil we're gonna get. That could work.
(Hell, I'll vote for Bush for a third term if you can get me a tankful at something below $3.00 a gallon.
-----
PS: Don't even mention that "constitution" as yet ANOTHER FUCKING INDICATION of how swell things are.
[nudge nudge, wink wink]
Shark
"Marketing Advisor to the Deluded"
18 - Shark
Dave approaching a nervous breakdown: "...Look at Shark and his endless posting of "Iraq is a Fucking Disaster". This is intended to counter to some degree that knee-jerk, ill-informed rhetoric with fact."
heh.
19 - kuros
i think this says it all
the Iraqi town of Haditha (90,000 people) is under insurgent control
"Islamist guerrillas are the sole authority, running the town's security, administration and communications."
http://www.guardian.co.uk/Iraq/Story/0,2763,1553969,00.html
20 - Shark
Dave: "...We're not building a paradise in Iraq, we're just helping to get them on their feet."
Accompaniment tune:
$200+ BILLION
Dead Americans Permanently Leaving the Dance Floor:
1,868 (as of this morning -- but the day is young!)
======
BTW, Dave, the Libertarian Party called; they said that not only do they want your membership card back, but they're puttin' a contract out on yer ass -- and that next time you come to the NRA Gun Show, you better be wearin' a *bullet-proof vest and arrive in an *armored HumVee.
* if you can find one; I hear there's quite a shortage!
21 - Shark
Dave sounding like he's in the last throes of a hormonal insurgency: (note: it works best if you picture veins stickin' out of his forehead)
=======
Oh.
My.
Gawd.
Guess the OPERATIVE word here:
Dave: "I guess we could just let them have a bigass civil war..."
*"LET" --?
*let them --?
*we could "let them"--?
~FUCK. We're all that's holding 'em back?
Then ya know what, davey...
~FUCK THEM.
Yankees Come Home!
*PONDER THAT, all you armchair psychologists.
22 - Margaret Romao Toigo
A refreshing diversion from all of that "if it bleeds, it leads" news from Iraq. The people who have lost their stomach (or who never really had one) for this war and want to pull out now should read this article.
Sure, there are lots of serious problems over there in Iraq and the results of our efforts there are not likely to meet the original expectations, but it's not all doom and gloom just because progress has been inconsistent.
This needs to be pointed out not only so that we can get a really "fair and balanced" picture of what's going on in Iraq, but to let people know why pulling out at this point would be a really bad idea.
And nevermind the now-irrelevant argument that we should never have invaded Iraq in the first place. "I told you so" is counterproductive at this juncture.
Right or wrong, we're there now and -- save for a sudden radical advancement in the field of time-travel technology -- there's no going back. We are now morally obliged to see it through to some workable and livable conclusion.
Given these circumstances, those small rays of hope are essential. And I thank you for providing a few, Dave.
23 - Druxxx
More and more people smarter then me are admitting "victory" is impossible. When/If we leave, we will be leaving behind an islamic state or one that will fall into civil war.
Our the lives of the over 1800 dead american soldiers worth creating another islamic state that supports terror, or rebuilding a country that will fall into civil war anyway?
Does anyone really see an Iraq that embraces democracy and freedom actually happening without our infinate presence?
24 - cathy
when do u think the dinar will hit the foregin exchange
25 - Margaret Romao Toigo
"Victory" in Iraq is elusive because the objectives were and still are in a state of political flux.
An Iraq that embraces democracy and freedom without our infinite presence might be too lofty a goal at this point.
However, since we did invade that country (and it's way too late to debate the rightness or wrongness of that action), destroying its government and infrastructure, we owe the Iraqi people our best efforts to help them to re-gain some sort of stability in governance and re-build their infrastructure to its pre-war state.
If we can do that before we leave, then at least the Iraqi people will have a decent chance at making some form of democratic government work for them.
And if they cannot make it work and the worst predictions about chaos and civil war come to pass, despite our best efforts, our conscience will be a lot cleaner than it would be if we left before that job is done.
Right now, it is still up to us. But once Iraq's government and infrastructure are stabilized, it will ultimately be up to them.