With chimpys recent stop over for the desert summit in Anbar, and the whitewash from the whitehouse that will be unveiled in all it’s glory today by Gen Betraeus and ambassador Crocker, it may be beneficial to have a look at what the reality of this “success” entails and how it has been achieved.
lf one were to go by the information available here via the msm, it would appear that there has, indeed, been some progress made in that particular province. Even Salon got caught up in the dog and pony show hype:
Fallujah catches its breath
Aug. 21, 2007 | I’ve been traveling throughout western Iraq for almost a month now and what I’ve seen so far has been shocking, but not in the way you might expect: Against all logic and expectations, against practically everything I’ve learned about the military’s history of fighting insurgencies, parts of Iraq actually seem to be getting better. During the second week of August I spent five nights with a Marine platoon in downtown Fallujah, and after the typical harrowing Humvee ride in, wondering which pile of roadside trash might conceal the IED (improvised explosive device) that ended my life, I took off my body armor and didn’t put it back on for the better part of a week.
Fallujah, once the symbol of everything gone wrong with the American mission in Iraq, seems to be breathing again. About half the shops are open. Groups of children wave heartily at American convoys driving by. Marines send out for local kebabs and falafel almost every night. The Marines haven’t had anyone killed in action in over three months….
Salon [day pass/reg req’d]
Sounds almost idyllic compared to Baghdad doesn’t it? But that’s hardly the reality of the situation.
more below the fold:
Depending on one’s viewpoint, glass half full or empty, the conditions on the ground are far from the picturesque images Morris attempts to portray in his article:
The Iraqi Islamic Party’s TV channel, al-Baghdad, accompanied Issawi on his tour and broadcast some of the scenes from inside Fallujah. The footage exposed the painful truth of the situation here. The streets were deserted, shops were closed and people appeared with sullen faces.
“Of course we are happy to have our city peaceful, but not this way,” lawyer Ahmed Hammad told Inter Press Service (IPS)…. They should not be proud of having the city quiet in a way that kills everybody with hunger and disease.”
[…]
A journalist who lives in Fallujah told IPS that several local journalists had been detained and warned of trouble for them if they reported anything other than “good news” about Fallujah.
“The media in the West are lying about Fallujah by saying everything is well,” said the journalist. “What is so good about a city that lives with no electricity, no water, no fuel, very expensive life necessities, and most important, with no vehicles? Moreover the unemployment is incredibly high.”
This, the banning of vehicles, must surely be temporary, a minor inconvenience, merely a vehicle-free zone:
“But of course the city is quiet,” Rahemm Othman, a high school teacher, told IPS. “They are banning car movement, and that would make it as quiet as the dead. We are being subjected to slow death here, and the world is so happy about it.” The local police and the U.S. military banned car movement in May.
Hmmm….not so temporary, and not just a zone but the entire city.
A tour of the city on foot gives the impression of the Dark Ages. People are back to riding donkeys…
This is what Betraeus, Crocker, and BushCo™ want to use as a model for the rest of Iraq. l guess if you can’t bomb them back to the Stone Age, the Dark Ages will have to do.