So, the media is losing us the war in Iraq because they refuse to tell the good news? That boys and girls is known in polite company as merde of Moo Cow. This disgusting and disgraceful lie has been repeated ad nauseum by the Bush Administration and its Republican hacks–John McCain to name one. There are, unfortunately, some in the media as well who insist that the media is just not telling us the good news. A friend of mine, Joel Mowbray, takes a whack at this topic in today’s Washington Times (and please, no hateful comments for Joel, he is still willing to give the Bushies the benefit of the doubt and is not an evil soul) by arguing that Iraqis by and large say they are better off today than under Saddam Hussein.
I would argue that objective facts point to a society that is drastically and dramatically worse off:
- Iraqi doctors and dentists have fled the country in droves
- Iraqi society has become more segregated
- Electricity production lags far behind the norm achieved under Saddam
- Public safety is a joke
- Religious extremism is more widespread and women in several areas of the country are subjected to Sharia law in a way never experienced under Saddam
But, I am an American and to be perfectly selfish about it my first and foremost concern is the welfare of Americans. On this count the trend is going in the wrong direction. Consider, for example, the number of U.S. soldiers dying in Iraq. I pulled together the following graph using data provided by the website Iraq Coalition Casualties. I counted the number of U.S. soldier who died in the four month period–December thru March–for the years 2004, 2005, 2006, and 2007. The following is the four month average:
