CNN wins “Most Negative Reporting of Good News in Iraq” Award
Monday, October 8, 2007 at 04:10PM Bottom Line Up Front: In the face of positive developments, CNN chooses to focus on the negative in Iraq.
CNN sure knows how to ignore a silver lining. This bunch couldn’t find the sun even without a cloud in the sky. In This Week at War, correspondents, including Army (RET) Colonel Douglas MacGregor and Jim Clancy, explained away declining fatality rates with a sour dose of negativity. Here are some samples:
-In Iraq, the number of military and civilian deaths is down again. Is this a turning point or just the lull before another storm?
-We'll ask if this drop-off in fatalities is just a statistical blip or is this a sign of real progress we've all waited so long for.
-So is this real progress or is it just a mirage?
-A lot of people number one, don't buy the number. They still feel that they're afraid to go to their homes. So how is it going? It depends on who you ask, but there's a general trend here. Looking at those numbers, they tell a story that something is working. No single reason why, though, Tom.
-I think one month's data is not evidence for a dramatic trend or turning point of any kind. We are paying them handsomely in hard cash not to shoot at us have made a profound difference. That may account to some extent for this reduction. But we don't know. It's just too difficult to say. We could have another upsurge.
-Al Qaeda found a home because we occupied the place and we started a rebellion against ourselves through some very stupid policies and behaviors. The population continues to hate us. If you look at the polling data, 79 percent of people polled in Iraq in August said that they disapproved on the U.S. presence. More than 50 percent, almost 60 percent approved of attacks against us.
-Iraq is now a fiction. This country is divided largely into three regions. We've had a civil war for two years. It's almost over. It's happened on our watch. The north is Kurdish. The center is Sunni. The south is Shia. They no longer have as many mixed neighborhoods, mixed villages in places where they can meet and kill each other.
-I don't think on the Iraqi side that we're seeing any improvement. What we're seeing are the coalescing of these forces in their regions. They're going to build themselves up. They're going to take whatever assistance we provide and be prepared for the fight that will ensue when we leave, whether we leave tomorrow, a year from now, two years from now or five years from now.
-There's a lot more conflict ahead and it not necessarily along this tri-partite line that's being drawn in Washington.
Holy Cow! How about being on the side of the home team for a change? CNN correspondents said there is no way to predict casualties one way or the other, yet GEN Petraeus did just that in predicting an increase of casualties at the onslaught of the surge. And if there is no way to predict trends, how can it be said that Iraqis are "going to take whatever assistance we provide and be prepared for the fight that will ensue when we leave, whether we leave tomorrow, a year from now, two years from now or five years from now"?
While there is certainly merit to cautious optimism, the sarcasm and bitterness with which the Wesley-Clark-type retired Colonel Douglas MacGregor, who has always been critical of Operation Iraqi Freedom, assessed the situation was less than balanced.
The most important indicators with the decrease in fatalities are 1) the dramatic decline in Iraqi civilian deaths, which indicates increased security and quality of life and 2) the steady decline in U.S. troops since the implementation of the surge and the rate that the decline has taken place. Couple together the rate of decreased fatalities with increased security and the story is much more optimistic than portrayed in this report.
How about cheering U.S. progress for a change, CNN?
Progress you might not hear on CNN's This Week At War:
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Reader Comments (14)
Great piece, thanks for the mention. Isn't it amazing that good news from Iraq isn't truly considered good news or even news at all?
CNN is on a downward spiral reporting on Iraq. I've seen the other vids (I think there are 2 others out there) that are pretty much the same but different programs.
If Anbar’s enlightenment continues, the dems will be forced to retreat back to national healthcare issues.
Cal, I think it's already happening.
CNN hasn't been reporting news for over a decade; It reports political opinions that are couched in 'news terms'. When a 'news organization' has to advertise that it is 'the most trusted name in news', then you know that they know, they have a problem with integrity.
"How about being on the side of the home team for a change?" Unfortunately, CNN actually believes they are. To them, the home team is some nebulous Trekkie future world of a united humanity. Nice thought - easily bolstered by refusing to realize their peaceful, healthy, let's eat fresh strawberries anytime of the year lives are only possible because the big bad wolf happens to be their overindulgent existential father, the U.S.
Let me guess Amy and the 27% CNN isn't reporting that schools are being rebuild? Or the fact Bush co. don't include car bombings as cause of death in Iraq.. Simple Amy and the dumbest 27% when you don't count the major cause of death it's not shocking when the death rate drops. There is no good news unless you have stock in Haliburton or Blackwater.
No, schools are being rebuilt and over 5 million Iraqi children started school on Sept. 30. A Water Treatment Facility now provides clean water for 500,000 Iraqis livin gin An Nasiriyah. Go to the Army Corps of Engineers website and read the reconstruction report for yourself. I'm sure you as a compassionate liberal will find the progress and rising standard of living for Iraqis something to be excited over.
What major causes of death are not counted in the figures, Johnny C? Car bomb deaths are most certainly included as would any other war related death be.
Wow Amy using four year old talking point I'm sort of shocked because even hacks like Hannity stop using the schools being rebuild talking point like what a two years ago. Again the leading factor of death was taken out car bombs therefore the drop and if there was progress going on as you and the other 27% claim is going on then Fixed News will be talking about it 24/7, instead the goon squad over at Fixed are talking about Britney Spears or whatever celebrity that find themselves in trouble. As for Iraqi civilians Amy come on you conservatives don't give a damn about them and what kind of progress are they living when they're scare to live their homes due to the fact they don't want to get shot either by American soldiers or someone of the different religious sect.
Again Amy you and the other chicken hawks make up the very small minority that supports the war people see the truth..
Um, how are water treatment plants and schools opening last week 4 year old talking points? These are facts you are apparently unwilling to confront. I don't see what the harm is, as a compassionate liberal, in simply acknowledging the facts and being happy for progress.
Or could it be...
that progress for Iraq means a set back for you? Stability for Iraq means defeat for you?
Of course you have no proof whatsoever to back up that "you conservatives don't care about Iraqis." Who do you think is sending the millions of dollars worth of school supplies and humanitarian aide to Iraqis through charities? Most come from church groups and religious people. Liberals are not being charitable to Iraqis and if they had their way they'd still be living under Saddam. But nice try.
MSG Proctor and I have raised $20,000 for Iraqis that has been delivered directly to them for the improvement of their quality of life. A few weeks ago I made an appeal at our parish to authorize another offering for Iraqi Christians in northern Iraq. I believe it will be approved but even if not, AT LEAST I'M TRYING. And you?
I am also in regular contact with both Iraqi citizens and U.S. military in Iraq. Our whole family has dedicated our lives to serving our country and supporting our soldiers. Again, I refer you to my military awards as proof that I'm AT LEAST TRYING to make the world I touch a better place.
If you really don't believe that Iraqis were TERRIFIED under Saddam that's up to you to rewrite history in your mind, but you'd be wrong. Soley on a humanitarian level, the war in Iraq is benevolent. And how dare you accuse American soldiers of shooting Iraqi civilians. We're killing terrorists, not civilians.
Finally, if indeed we make up a "small minority that supports the war", why could you and your vast majority get a mandate on Iraq in the Senate and Congress? Not only can Dems not get enough votes to end the war, but you can't even override the President's veto! And WHO was elected to consecutive terms as a war time President? Last I looked Pres. Bush was still in the White House and has higher approval ratings than the Democratic House and Senate! Dems could barely eek out a majority, which is unheard of when the opposite party is in power (the opposing party usually has a solid majority as Republicans did under Bill Clinton). The Dem majority is so small that they cannot accomplish anything.
Over 70% of the military voted for Bush over Kerry in 2004 and I'm more concerned with what we in the military think, since we're the ones fighting the war on terror.
But thanks for the comments.
See Amy everything you stories you post happen be either b/s or something the RNC email to you here's the thing Iraq only have three hours of electricity and most of the country are unemployed let's not forget people leaving due to the violence. Stability?you must be hitting the crack pipe too hard, there's nothing stable from the government meeting an hand fill of benchmarks, majority of the Iraqis want us out of their country and the US treasury being drained. While oil companies and private groups like Blackwater pocket billions of tax payer dollars. but let's forget the leeches that's sucking the blood of the US let's talk about the people you and the other 27% claim to support, explain this to me (which I know you won't answer) your Republicans voted against the Webb bill allowing troops to come home to get rest, your republicans voted to cut VA funding and your boy George W. thin the army to a point where the army is force to take whomever comes to sign up yet you want to stand on the soap box talk about you support the army while your party is short changing them every chance they get give me a break.
Second if the war is going the way you claimed Fixed News will talk about the "good" news from sunrise to sunset hold on let me see what slant head and tool are talking about right now ok they're talking to Lynn Cheney no good news about Iraq sorry... Hold on let me check again to be fair ok promo story about Joe Torre Yankees skip sorry no good news there either.
As for Saddam again that talking point has nothing to stand on either because the stuff that happen under Saddam happen during the Reagan years and guess what Reagan did? Nothing. Let's skip to Bush Sr years that time fame after Desert Storm when he told them to rise up against Saddam and don't worry we have your back he allowed them to get slaughter so using events from almost 23 years ago to justify what's going on now is pointless. Oh by the way Reagan armed Saddam with the wonderful toys he used against his people.
As for you very lame attempt that I'm saying soldiers are killing people, nice try I gotta give you credit for that one, your boy GW has place the soldiers in a Arabic version of Vietnam where they don't know who's friendly or not so I don't blame them but you tried to twist a point the Iraqis are afraid to leave their homes because of the violence again nice try Amy lame but you get a D for effort.
As for congress you still have enough goobers like you in the senate to a tune of 49 Republicans (who's holding on to the pro war elements of their party until the primaries are over) but that number of 49 should go down after November of next year so that should clear up your question. Gee Amy failed a civic class? Even a 7th grader would know the minority can fill buster, and you need more then 60 votes to override a veto. Again look at the party break down poll Republicans 29% to the Democrats 38% bad numbers for the Dems but worst for you.
You fighting the war on terror? Sitting in the safety in your home, and repeating RNC emails as fact isn't fighting terror it's being arm chair warrior. Again Amy you still have a chance to put your money where your mouth is and sign up.. Wait a second you told me you was too old to sign up typical excuse for chicken hawks even though they take people up to 42 years old. As for Kerry funny you guys claim to support the troops yet you mocked him with purple heart band aids before I get done 60 to 40% isn't over 70%
I will wait til you make something up and then I debunk it
Retired Gen. Batiste continues to blast Bush over war
By Michal Beebe | The Buffalo News | View story in the original context
PUBLISHED: October 09, 2007
John Batiste took a day off from running a Rochester steel company a week ago so he could speak to Army troops from Fort Hood, Texas, as they were about to leave for another deployment in Iraq.
It wasn’t an unusual assignment for Batiste, president of Klein Steel Services, which recently took over a former Gibraltar Steel plant in the Town of Tonawanda.
Batiste is a retired major general who commanded 22,000 members of the Army’s 1st Infantry Division in Iraq. He spent six years at Fort Hood and married his wife there 30 years ago.
But the fact the Army invited him back to speak at all was surprising, almost unheard of. That’s because Batiste, a West Point graduate who spent 31 years in the Army, retired so he could freely criticize the way President Bush and then-Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld were running the war.
And since he retired in November 2005, Batiste has been one of the harshest critics of the war and what he feels it is doing to the Army he still loves.
In April 2006, five months after his retirement, Batiste called for Rumsfeld’s resignation in a speech to the Rochester Rotary Club.
A few days later, he and five other retired generals were on the front page of the New York Times, again calling for Rumsfeld’s ouster.
And this April, Batiste appeared in a controversial advertisement commissioned by an anti-Iraqi war group, Vote- Vets.org.
“Mr. President, you did not listen,” Batiste said in the television commercial. “You continue to pursue a failed strategy that is breaking our Army and Marine Corps . . .
“Mr. President, you have placed our great nation in peril. Our only hope is that Congress will now act to protect our fighting men and women . . .”
Batiste’s role in that ad got him fired as a part-time military consultant to CBS News, which said he could no longer be counted on to give impartial military analysis. MoveOn.org collected 230,000 signatures demanding his rehiring.
Batiste, a youthful 54, still as trim and fit as he was when leading the Army’s Big Red, its famed 1st Infantry Division, said in an interview at Klein Steel’s Tonawanda plant that he anguished about leaving the Army but felt he had no choice.
Batiste went before Congress a week before Gen. David Petraeus testified in September, giving the other side of how the war is going.
He said there are no easy solutions in leaving Iraq, nor are there any good solutions.
Batiste compared the war effort to a four-legged stool, saying to be successful, the U.S. has to use diplomatic, political, economic and military means.
“Of the four legs,” he said during the interview in Tonawanda, “this administration only stresses the military.”
The result, one that he said he witnessed again during his Fort Hood visit, is that the military can no longer take the strain. “I came across an Army that is in decay,” he said. “That really bothers me.”
He looked at the faces of those about to be deployed to Iraq, he said. Mostly what he saw were privates and newly commissioned lieutenants, right out of Infantry School.
The seasoned veterans he would expect to see, he said, were either already in Iraq or had left the service.
“We have soldiers pulled together as a pickup team,” he said, soldiers who were thrown together 90 days before deployment, instead of cohesive units that had trained for months together.”
“Folks are going over for their third or fourth deployment,” he said. “Their spirit is broken.”
The troops were green, he said, and the Army fort itself was suffering from neglect.
“The infrastructure of the post is falling apart. The training apparatus of the post is falling apart,” he said.
Not everyone agrees with Batiste, obviously.
His critics want to know why he took so long to speak, how he could plan the Iraq War effort with former Deputy Defense Secretary Paul Wolfowitz and then complain about planning mistakes.
He was asked by Rumsfeld himself in Iraq, in front of reporters, if there was anything that he, as a commander on the ground, needed.
Batiste instead told the defense secretary about the successes of the war.
Batiste said he complained at the time through the chain of command but said he realized the only way he could speak freely was to retire.
He said he gave up a promotion and a promised third star so he could speak his mind. He also said it was the reason he went into private industry and not the defense industry.
“I’ve been speaking out for 18 to 19 months,” he said. “I have yet to be told by a retired general or admiral: Stop what you’re doing.”
He said he is speaking for those who are unable to, because they are either in the military or working for politically sensitive companies.
Joseph Klein, owner and chief executive officer of Klein Steel, encourages Batiste’s outspokenness.
Johnny C, with all due respect you're an idiot. You have no facts to back up anything you say, like Iraqis have only 3 hours of electricity a day... that's just not a fact. And I cannot sign up for military service because I turned 40 this year. Even if I could, I wouldn't. I've spent the last 19 years of my life raising a family and supporting a husband so HE could serve. I don't think it does my family any good to leave 4 children with 2 deployed parents and I wouldn't do it to placate you. Your assertion is ridiculous that only people serving in Iraq can have an opinion. If this were the case, you'd have to surrender your opinions immediately, wouldn't you?
And do you have an opinion on abortion even though you're not a woman?
See where I'm going with this?
I don't have time to rehash my credientials but suffice to say I'm much closer to the military and the war than you. Even if not, your comments are totally unpersuasive because you simply cannot prove your point.
And of course there are people in the military who disagree with the war strategy. That does absolutely nothing to counter the progress that is taking place on the ground. The progress I cited are from eye witness accounts and laborious reports from commanders.
As for the rest of your immature remarks, I'll just leave them up for the record and let readers decide which is the more informed.
Again you have nothing Amy, you conservatives and Republicon are done. You talk about facts you nor these other chickens provided none your blog is nothing more than an giant RNC talking point. The Iraqi government have met a hand fill of benchmarks(debunked that), a majority of Iraqi civilians want the US out( debunk that without using non right wing think tank or Republican site) and billions are dollars are going to these contractors and oil companies( debunk that) and the majority of Iraqis are unemployed and they're leaving the country because of the violence (try to debunk that) without using other right wing sites.
My opinion about abortion since I'm not a woman I don't believe a government that has men running it shouldn't be able to pass laws restricting a woman right to chose the best thing for herself. And those who claim to be pro life should be gung ho finding a way to limit abortion therefore you should be for programs that truly help them not scare them i.e. affordable child care, programs that help them with education and real job training not just working at dead end jobs .
Again the army takes people up to 42 years so put your money where your mouth is and fight. Most of these soldiers have been cut down in the prime of their lives so some already wealthy men can profit these contractors and oil company made billion and the progress you're talking about only show in these war profiteers bank book. So if guys ranging from 18 to their mid or late 20s can put their lives on hold then you should have the courage to do so too.
Again you and your readers make up the worst minority that crawl out of the gene pool therefore I don't give a damn what you or these brain dead readers think the point of this you people on the right support death, destruction and the gutting of the U.S. treasury for nothing. Iraq had nothing to do with 9.11, no ties to terror and Iraq couldn't attack the US with a water balloon yet you support a war that's killing and crippling troops daily and cost this country a billion dollars a month yet you and these other indoor warriors don't mind that because you loyal to the Republicon party not the country.
As for your "sources" can I guess who those sources are? I'm thinking Fox News or better yet I'm thinking Newsmax.
Instead of whining Amy try to debunk these thing but we both know you can't.
And I notice you totally by pass the Vote Vet piece.. I guess you know more than a General huh Ams?
"Johnny C, with all due respect you're an idiot." Now if you want an example of a perfect putdown with the most perfect economy of words, that has to be it.
It should be obvious by now that, no matter how hard he tries, our friend Johnny C just doesn't have the requisite intelligence to successfully insult you, Amy. When you finally tire of humoring him, Amy, please just close the door on him. He's so annoying.