Saturday, April 19, 2008
Iraq's army and the defeatist narrative
Bill Roggio observes that the Western media has been promoting the narrative that the army of Iraq is still cutting and running. This is true even when it reports accomplishments. For instance, after a spate of front page stories on desertion rates in the Basra encounter, the press has essentially buried some impressive results:
In today’s New York Times, Michael Gordon writes about the wall being built to partition Sadr City. Buried in the article, we learn that the Mahdi Army assaulted a police station and the Iraqi forces were running low on ammunition. As the U.S. military prepared to reinforce the position, the Iraqi Army beat them to the punch...
Moving armor into Sadr City while under fire is no small feat, particularly for the young Iraqi Army. The Iraqi Army outperformed their American betters on that day. Isn’t that worth a headline as well? There is certainly nothing wrong with reporting the defection of the Iraqi company on April 16, although the context of the story was seriously flawed. But when the Iraqi Army exceeds its expectations, that is news as well, and it should be treated in the same manner.
Of course, symmetrical emphasis would not appeal to most readers of the New York Times, which -- judging from its recent financial results -- can no longer afford the luxury of alienating its base.
CWCID: Glenn Reynolds.
4 Comments:
By 
, at
Sat Apr 19, 03:23:00 PM:
This is where the old journalistic "we report on the planes that crash, not the ones that land" argument fails.
If the public knows that "most planes don't crash", you obviously don't need to inform them of that fact. You assume that they bring that knowledge with them when they read reports on "plane crashes" (using that metaphorically of course).
But if your audience doesn't know that fact, you must inform them of that matter.
Reporting, then, that some units in the IA ran must be told in the larger picture that most did not.
By 
Christopher Chambers, at
Sat Apr 19, 06:43:00 PM:
Defeatists! Haven't heard talk and right wing recrimination like that since Der Bunker, around this time in April, 1945, Berlin.
Take a Valium.
By , at
Sun Apr 20, 01:51:00 AM:
Defeatists! Haven't heard talk and right wing recrimination like that since Der Bunker, around this time in April, 1945, Berlin.
I agree. How ridiculous to describe people who claim the "War is lost" as defeatist. Clearly, such people have nothing but victory on the mind.
By davod, at
Mon Apr 21, 07:01:00 AM:
Anon:
People who claim the war is lost still have victory in mind. There are two sides to any conflict.
