Iraq: The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly

There's good, bad, and ugly news from Iraq.

Let's get the "bad" and the "ugly" over with first:

Iraqis Find 87 Bodies Within 24 Hours

BAGHDAD, Iraq - Police in the past 24 hours have found the bodies of at least 87 men killed by execution style shootings in a gruesome wave of apparent sectarian killing, the Interior Ministry said Tuesday. They include at least 29 bodies stacked in a mass grave in an eastern Shiite neighborhood. Much of the bloodshed -- the second wave of mass killings in Iraq since bombers destroyed an important Shiite shrine last month -- followed deadly weekend explosions in a teeming Shiite slum in which 58 people died and more than 200 were wounded.

And yet, that is not the whole story.  Here's some good news from Iraq:

Ralph Peters, Myths of Iraq

During a recent visit to Baghdad, I saw an enormous failure. On the part of our media. The reality in the streets, day after day, bore little resemblance to the sensational claims of civil war and disaster in the headlines.

No one with first-hand experience of Iraq would claim the country's in rosy condition, but the situation on the ground is considerably more promising than the American public has been led to believe. Lurid exaggerations and instant myths obscure real, if difficult, progress.

I think both sides of the story are true.

Iraq is struggling to restore peace after some incredibly provocative attacks, starting with the destruction of the dome of the Golden Mosque. 

And yet Iraq's future has never been brighter.  The Iraqi people live in freedom for the first time in many of their lifetimes.  They finally have the power to choose their own leaders and to chart their own course.  They finally know democracy.  It is for that very reason that dark forces are doing everything in their power to destroy everything that Iraq has begun to build.

We must stand firmly behind Iraq. 

Comments

[Robert]

Finally some acurate reporting. Wouldn't it be great if you didn't have to watch CNN and Fox and then decide somwhere in the middle is the truth.