nypost.com
THE REAL IRAQ
By AMIR TAHERI
July 17, 2003 -- Open up almost any American or European publication these days, and you'll be bombarded with grim news about "horrific" conditions in Iraq - and America's "poor handling" of the post-war reconstruction effort. All of which, it is claimed, is made all the more tragic - because President Bush and British Prime Minister Tony Blair maliciously exaggerated the threat from Iraq. They may have won the war, but they're losing they peace.
Author and Middle East expert Amir Taheri spent several days on the ground in Iraq last week and found reality to be starkly different from what is so ubiquitously reported.
Here is a first-hand account of an Iraq that is rapidly moving forward in nearly every aspect of life - political, economic and cultural. And a people that, while understandably skeptical after decades of tyranny, is nonetheless hopeful - and grateful for their liberation.
- THE EDITORS
BAGHDAD, IRAQ
'THE Iraqi Intifada!" This is the cover story offered by Al- Watan Al-Arabi, a pro- Saddam Hussein weekly published in Paris. It finds an echo in the latest issue of America's Time magazine, which paints a bleak prospect for the newly liberated country. The daily Al Quds, another pro-Saddam paper, quotes from The Washington Post in support of its claim that "a popular war of resistance" is growing in Iraq. Some newspapers in the United States, Britain and "old Europe" go further by claiming that Iraq has become a "quagmire" or "another Vietnam." The Parisian daily Le Monde prefers the term "engrenage," which is both more chic and French.
This chorus wants us to believe that most Iraqis regret the ancien regime, and are ready to kill and die to expel their liberators.
Sorry, guys, this is not the case.
Neither the wishful thinking of part of the Arab media, long in the pay of Saddam, nor the visceral dislike of part of the Western media for George W. Bush and Tony Blair changes the facts on the ground in Iraq.
ONE fact is that a visitor to Iraq these days never finds anyone who wants Saddam back.
No surprise here.........why would they want him back? Saddam wouldn't take all the sh*t the Iraqis are dishing out day after day like we Americans are.
<font color=red>**It also doesn't change the fact that AMERICAN soldiers are being killed nearly every day by IRAQIS.
**It also doesn't change the fact that we are dishing out $5 billion per month to make sure the Iraqis can protest the American occupation of their country without harm........and we may be picking up that tab for years.
**It doesn't change the fact that our gov't took us into war on false premises.
**It doesn't change the fact that our true enemy, al Qaeda, was not affected by the war and is stronger than ever.
**It doesn't change the fact that this war has alienated some of our allies and many people throughout the world.<font color=black>
All the fluff the right and its minions are coming up with to explain away this war is simply excuses for the war's horrendous cost to this nation in terms of lives, money and prestige.
So you snag your articles from the NY Pest or form your viewpoint from Fox News, the mouthpiece of the president that provides "fair and balanced news" in favor of the White House. It will not change the fact that this is war is fast becoming Iraqi gate!
Have a good one! |
