by Frank James
For all the self-styled media critics who call into C-Span and other talk shows to insist the MSM don’t ever tell the good news about what’s happening in Iraq, I suggest they actually read the coverage being produced by reporters there.
In recent weeks, there’ve been a number of front-page stories about the drop of violence in Iraq, especially in Baghdad, a result of the U.S.-Iraqi military surge and the resistance of Sunnis tribal leaders to the insurgency, particularly that fueled by al Qaeda in Iraq.
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The latest such story comes today in the Washington Post, which reports that Iraqis are returning to Baghdad as the violence levels fall and the city literally becomes more livable.
Here’s how the story starts:
Those returning make up only a tiny fraction of the 2.2 million Iraqis who have fled Iraq since the U.S.-led invasion in 2003. But they represent the largest number of returnees since February 2006, when sectarian violence began to rise dramatically, speeding the exodus from Iraq.
Many find a Baghdad they no longer recognize, a city altered by blast walls and sectarian rifts. Under the improved security, Iraqis are gingerly testing how far their new liberties allow them to go. But they are also facing many barriers, geographical and psychological, hardened by violence and mistrust.
This too was in the top half of the story:
“Security is better,” said Melal al-Zubaidi, who has a degree in engineering. “But we still have fear inside ourselves.”
Over the past two months, the level of nearly every type of violence — car bombings, assassinations, suicide attacks — has dropped from earlier this year. The downturn is a result of a confluence of factors: This year, 30,000 U.S. military reinforcements were funneled into Baghdad and other areas. Sunni tribes and insurgents turned against the al-Qaeda in Iraq insurgent group and partnered with U.S. forces to patrol neighborhoods and towns. Shiite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr, seeking to improve his movement’s image, ordered his Mahdi Army militia to freeze operations.
U.N. refugee officials estimate that 45,000 Iraqis returned from Syria last month, while Iraqi officials say 1,000 are arriving each day.
The returnees find a capital that offers greater freedom of movement. Shops are open later in many neighborhoods, and curfews have been reduced.
But those freedoms still come with constraints. Weddings, accompanied by honking cars and lively bands, are reappearing on the streets, but they still end before darkness falls.
Visits to relatives and friends across Baghdad are more possible but still hinge on which group or sect controls each neighborhood. Some stores are selling alcohol, but fundamentalists watch for those who breach their codes.
Again, this report parallels other MSM stories in recent weeks. The reports have been balanced, noting the continued challenges facing Iraqis and the U.S. military but clearly reporting the improvements in the security situation and a rising optimism among Iraqis who are voting with their feet and returning in significant numbers to Baghdad.
So the good news from Iraq isn’t being hidden or unreported from the field. Far from it.
What will likely go unreported, however, at least by MSM critics, is that such stories are being reported.
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