Getting into it some more
Earlier today, we saw this post:

"'I think the resistance is bigger than the U.S. military in Iraq. I think the resistance is more than 200,000 people,' said Gen. Muhammad Abdullah Shahwani, director of Iraq's new intelligence services.

Shahwani said there were at least 40,000 hardcore fighters attacking U.S. and Iraqi troops, with the bulk made up of part-time guerrillas and volunteers providing logistical support, information, shelter and money."

Cyetain in a comment to this post:

Anyway the author continues to flog stories about Saddam hold outs and foreigners. Even the head of Intelligence IN IRAQ doesn't believe those myths.

Well, here's an article by LTC Tim Ryan, an American official. His view:

The operation in Fallujah is only one of the recent examples of incomplete coverage of the events in Iraq. The battle in Najaf last August provides another...
What the media didn't show or write about were the two hundred-plus headless bodies found in the main mosque there, or the body that was put into a bread oven and baked. Nor did they show the world the hundreds of thousands of mortar, artillery and small arms rounds found within the "sacred" walls of the mosque...

Telling us what it looks like from where he's sitting:

From where I sit in Iraq, things are not all bad right now. In fact, they are going quite well. We are not under attack by the enemy; on the contrary, we are taking the fight to him daily and have him on the ropes...

The number of attacks in the greater Al Anbar Province is down by at least 70-80 percent from late October — before Operation Al Fajar began. The enemy in this area is completely defeated, but not completely gone. Final eradication of the pockets of insurgents will take some time, as it always does, but the fact remains that the central geographic stronghold of the insurgents is now under friendly control.

Telling us what it looks like to him:

That sounds a lot like success to me. Given all of this, why don't the papers lead with "Coalition Crushes Remaining Pockets of Insurgents" or "Enemy Forces Resort to Suicide Bombings of Civilians"? This would paint a far more accurate picture of the enemy's predicament over here. Instead, headlines focus almost exclusively on our hardships.

Cyetain, what do you think of this story? This comes from a well placed American security official, though not as high ranking as the Iraqi inetlligence chief you linked, and whose statements you apparently accept at face value. LTC Tim Ryan shares with General Shahwani the virtue of being in Iraq, involved in the daily struggle there. As men of action, they both have agendas. Granted, General Shahwani's position may offer him a broader view of events in Iraq, and a deeper understanding, but I think that LTC Tim Ryan adequately qualifies his general statements. Perhaps they're both honest actors. I hope so. But they're not objective observers.

It's strange to me, and I'm speculating here, that you would regard these two accounts so differently. Are Americans such bigger liars than Iraqis? Are we incapable of assessing the situation there, because we're not Iraqi? Are the interests of an Iraqi official making a public statement any less conflicted than an American military commander's? Are you thinking without thinking? Using your hunch power?

Your taste in news raises questions.

- posted by Anonymous @ Tuesday, January 18, 2005