Newsweek: Dog Days of Summer (reality vs "last throes")

[Rose Siding]

Reporter’s notebook: Amid explosions, suicide bombers and oppressive heat, an optimist reaches his breaking point.
WEB-EXCLUSIVE COMMENTARY
By Joe Cochrane
Newsweek
July 16 - I’ve always been something of an optimist, but everyone has a breaking point. Mine came on Saturday as I toured the infamous “Green Zone” in central Baghdad. This fortress is quite literally the heart of the new Iraq, not to mention the only safe place in the country. Then again, maybe not. Roadblocks, blast walls and barbed wire are the most common sights in this walled-in mini-city, called the international zone, which is fitting because these days it’s guarded by soldiers from Georgia—and I don’t mean the U.S. state.

The Green Zone has changed a lot since I was last here, around 18 months ago, and so has Iraq. But from what little I’ve seen in the last 24 hours, I wonder whether it’s for the worse. The security situation has deteriorated so badly that journalists rarely venture out unless they’re embedded with U.S. soldiers. That wasn’t the case early last year, when foreigners could walk the streets outside the Green Zone, shop in local markets, and, most important to journalists, talk to the Iraqi people. Those days are long gone.
....
Amid this insecurity, confusion and oppressive summertime heat, my mind keeps returning to one thing: Dick Cheney. I don’t understand how the U.S. vice president concluded recently that the insurgency terrorizing Iraq was in its “last throes.” We’re obviously not reading the same newspapers. The mere fact that there is a Green Zone should tell you something.........

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/8596940/site/newsweek/

[Democracy White]

1. Bush and Co.

Must really be deep in their fantasy land to say that everything is fine over there. Good for this reporter to tell the truth.

Dee

[Rose Siding]

5. He was in Baghdad a year ago, but

I'm not finding much that he wrote- not in Newsweek anyway.

This was from Feb 04-

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/4052400/site/newsweek/

[bpilgrim]

2. hell in iraq

peace

[Rose Siding]

3. I can hardly imagine that kind of heat

:(

[proud patriot]

7. I was just in Laughlin Nevada 2 weeks ago

at 7 pm we drove by a temp sign that read 121 .

I thought of our soldiers in Iraq when I felt the
heat . It was oppressive the heat . :-(

[cap]

4. Vietnam was never like this

reporters could walk around a lot of the country

They were never walled up in part of Saigon.

[CatWoman]

6. I wonder what those right wing talk show hosts

and evangelicals will say?

Critics Call Radio Hosts' Trip Propaganda Mission
Wednesday, July 06, 2005
By Kelley Beaucar Vlahos

WASHINGTON — A contingent of conservative talk radio hosts is headed to Iraq this month on a mission to report "the truth" about the war: American troops are winning, despite headlines to the contrary.

The "Truth Tour" has been pulled together by the conservative Web cast radio group Rightalk.com and Move America Forward, a non-profit conservative group backed by a Republican-linked public relations firm in California.

"The reason why we are doing it is we are sick and tired of seeing and hearing headlines by the mainstream media about our defeat in Iraq," Melanie Morgan, a talk radio host (search) for KSFO Radio in San Francisco and co-chair of Move America Forward, said.

Morgan said the media is "imposing a Vietnam template on this war."

"This is not Vietnam," she said. "War is war, and it's dangerous, and the killing is taking place all of the time. At the same time, where there is danger, there is success and there is a mainstream media that is determined to shut out that success."

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,161463,00.html

[AuntiBush]

8. O.I.L. T.E.X.A.S T.E.A. - P.O.W.E.R.

And drunk w/it. Like a huge bubble about to burst.

[DaveT]

9. Cheney told us where is mind was

when he said that Reagan proved that deficits don't matter . . . about winning elections.

What actually happens on the ground in Afghanistan and Iraq are completely irrelevant to Cheney and this Administration. What matters is the "reality" created in the Red State Mind -- hence the hilarious idea of fat-assed bloviators going to Iraq to "find" the truth . . . that they have already chosen to believe before getting on the plane.

Of course, what also matters is the flow of money from the purchasers of T-Bills through the Pentagon and on into the bank accounts of Halliburton.

[leftchick]

10. I am glad he makes this before and after comparison,,,

It just might wake some amerikans up ...

~snip~

Say what you will about whether the United States was justified to invade this country. We’re well into the game, and it’s too late to argue over who got the ball first. But prior to April 2003, there were no suicide bombers in Baghdad, there was 24-hour electricity and people went out at night. Now, if you drive into town from the airport, there is a legitimate possibility you will get killed. How long can the insurgents keep it up? Who knows, but they haven’t let the dust and heat of summertime Iraq stop them. Let’s just say that the insurgency doesn’t take the day off because of weather conditions.