. . . the Associated Press!
AP IMPACT: It's fear that keeps Baghdad's peace
BAGHDAD – The streets are calmer now. The fighting between Shiites and Sunnis has largely ceased. But this is not a sign of normalcy in the Iraqi capital. It's fear that keeps the peace.
Only an estimated 16 percent of the mainly Sunni families forced by Shiite militiamen and death squads to flee their homes have dared to return.
It goes on and on in that vein, but let me condense it down for you:
Remember how the Shiite and Sunnis were fighting for a while there? Stoked by Iran and Al Qaeda? And the Sunnis were still mad that Saddam Hussein had been deposed? And things looked bad for a while?
Well, the Sunnis were defeated. Many left town and sold or gave up their homes, and may not come back.
And now there's peace. Blessed peace.
And this is a problem because -- ?
The AP doesn't explain. What is more important, keeping all religious ethnic groups in their original configurations regardless of their difficulty in getting along, or creating a lasting peace?
Just for good measure, the AP throws in a quote from "Juan Cole, a prominent U.S. expert on Iraq."
Ahem.
Juan Cole has been a nattering nabob of negativism on Iraq for at least seven years, as even this generous (probably self-authored) Wikipedia entry acknowledges. He is constantly cited as an expert by fawning media, but he is really the go-to man for defense of Muslim terrorists and tyrannies around the world. It is in Cole's interests to undermine any evidence of peace in Iraq, and that is exactly what he and the AP are trying to do.
The AP doesn't bother to mention that Juan Cole has been notably, conspicuously, completely wrong about Iraq in the past. Here's a doozy from Juan Cole in December 2007: Why Bush's troop surge won't save Iraq.
Portraying Cole as a "prominent expert" on Iraq without mentioning his bias is like portraying ACORN as an an expert on voter registration.
God bless the people of Iraq. May they keep their peace forever. May the forces that are trying to destroy Iraq's hard-earned peace fall flat on their faces.
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