This was going to be a post comparing and contrasting two versions of reporting from Iraq about the current situation in Baghdad - one by a seasoned, unembedded journalist who has reported from Iraq for years, Patrick Cockburn, author of the front page piece in Thursday's Independent - and that of Hot Air blogger Bryan who, along with his fellow warblogger Michelle Malkin, just spent one week embedded with US troops in Baghdad. You'll find Bryan's rosier picture of Baghdad here.The gist of this post changed however when I came across the following passage in the Hot Air story which left me stunned:
On the average day, much of Baghdad is quiescent, advancing with US help toward something like normal life. Troops can walk through town without incident, and militia fighters run away rather than face them down. Second, and this is an unsettling truth: Sectarian cleansing works. When the Shia and Sunni go their separate ways, violence decreases. In the short to medium term, it may be necessary to separate the two communities long enough to let Baghdad quiet down. That won’t be easy and we would probably only try it as a last resort. But it is a fact that most of the city’s violence is either in Sunni areas or in areas where the populations mix. The city isn’t roiling with violence from end to end, every day.
Now, as far as who I trust to bring me the truth from Iraq, Mr Cockburn certainly wins hands down.
Read what Cockburn describes. You'll note that there are, of course, distinct Sunni and Shi'ite areas already in Baghdad. Using the logic posited by Bryan of Hot Air, that separation should have caused the city to 'quiet down'. This, however, is the reality of those separations:
Baghdad has broken up into hostile townships, Sunni and Shia, where strangers are treated with suspicion and shot if they cannot explain what they are doing. In the militant Sunni district of al-Amariyah in west Baghdad the Shia have been driven out and a resurgent Baath party has taken over. One slogan in red paint on a wall reads: "Saddam Hussein will live for ever, the symbol of the Arab nation." Another says: "Death to Muqtada [Muqtada al-Sadr, the nationalist Shia cleric] and his army of fools."
Restaurants in districts of Baghdad like the embassy quarter in al-Mansur, where I once used to have lunch, are now far too dangerous to visit. Any foreigner on the streets is likely to be kidnapped or killed. In any case, most of the restaurants closed long ago.
It is difficult for Iraqis to avoid joining one side or the other in the conflict. Many districts, such as al-Hurriya in west Baghdad, have seen the minority - in this case the Sunni - driven out.
A Sunni friend called Adnan, living in the neighbouring district of al-Adel, was visited by Sunni militiamen. They said: "You must help us to protect you from the Shia in Hurriya by going on patrol with us. Otherwise, we will give your house to somebody who will help us." He patrolled with the militiamen for several nights, clutching a Kalashnikov, and then fled the area.
So much for 'sectarian cleansing'.
The Hot Air blogger, in true warblogger fashion, then seeks to destroy the credibility of the MSM reports of the situation on the ground claiming, for example, that 'the AP farms it out to locals whose loyalties will inevitably taint their reporting' (just part of the ongoing attacks on the AP the warbloggers have been pushing for months). So, it's quite ironic that Bush war supporters like Bryan and Malkin continue to claim that the small amount of time they spent with US soldiers roaming around Baghdad while being protected by guns, helmets and vests ought to be more reliable than what real journalists like Patrick Cockburn provide on an ongoing basis - year in and year out - while he risks his life.
Just whose 'loyalties' have tainted whose reporting?
Maybe Bryan and Malkin should have embedded themselves with Cockburn for a week if they wanted a real picture of what's going on in Iraq. He could have shown them what "sectarian cleansing" really looks like. Not only that, maybe they actually would have learned something that might challenge their illusions. But that would require self-honesty and humility - qualities that are very hard to find on any of the warblogging sites. They really do hang onto the notion that being 'right-wing' makes them right all of the time. Facts be damned.
Bush was being narrow-minded when he said that he'd keep fighting the war in Iraq even if the only supporters he had left were Laura and their dog, Barney. He'd still have them, Joe Lieberman and all of the warbloggers - no matter what actually happens.
Related: Palestinians Under Pressure To Leave Iraq
No comments:
Post a Comment