WSJ: 'Finish the job' (delusional optimism by blogger Arthur Chrenkoff)

[Barrett808]

'Finish the Job'
A roundup of the past two weeks' good news from Iraq.
BY ARTHUR CHRENKOFF
Monday, August 2, 2004 12:01 a.m. EDT

Over a month into sovereignty, and Iraq still continues to generate a flood of bad news, at least as far as the mainstream media are concerned. Foreign workers keep getting kidnapped and occasionally executed; terrorist bombs continue to explode throughout Baghdad and other cities, although the victims are now overwhelmingly Iraqi civilians. Meanwhile, on the other side of the world, learned commissions deliver their reports, providing the media with fresh opportunities to talk about intelligence failures and strategic blunders.

Yet for every foreigner taken hostage there are stories of hundreds of Iraqis who can now enjoy in many different ways their regained liberty. For every attack, with all its terror and bloodshed, there are countless stories of courage, determination and resourcefulness on the part of the Iraqi people. And for every intelligence failure by the government agencies then, there is an intelligence failure by the media now. Which is why you are likely to have recently missed some of the stories below.

...

There are problems and delays to be sure, but the people's conference certainly has a momentum on its side (the delay is at least partly due to the United Nations' request). Yet, while we celebrate Iraq's slow journey towards democracy, we should always remember the courage of ordinary people who are making the ultimate sacrifice in order to help rebuild their country: In just the two weeks after the transition of sovereignty, six members of Baghdad's city council were assassinated by the enemies of freedom and democracy. It's a testament to the determination and commitment of Iraqi community leaders that they are not giving in and giving up despite the very real and immediate risks.

Some areas of Iraq, like Kurdistan, are much further advanced along the road to normalcy, as one of the best correspondents out of Iraq, Nicholas Rothwell of the Australian, writes: "The construction of an open, democratic, Western-oriented society may be an elusive dream in the rest of Iraq, but it is a solid reality here. The Kurds even control their own territory with their Peshmerga militia, separate from the Iraqi armed forces."

...

Other minorities continue to breathe easier. One hundred eighty thousand Assyrian Christians celebrate their holiday in peace and joy.

...

In sports news, the Iraqi soccer comeback continues, after a 3-2 victory over Turkmenistan in the Asian Cup. "Now we are building the new team, the Olympic team," says the new national coach, Adnan Hamad. "Hamad's boys no longer answer to Uday Hussein, the psychotic son of the toppled ruler, known to beat the soles of their feet or lock them up for days over slip-ups on the pitch." Which must make it so much easier to enjoy sport. Here's more on the Iraq's phoenix-like soccer team.

(more)

http://www.opinionjournal.com/extra/?id=110005430

I particularly like the happy spin on the soccer team -- Mr. Chrenkoff fails to mention that the Olympic soccer coach Bernd Stange was recently forced to resign under fear of death. This is even mentioned in the story he cites (http://thestar.com.my/news/story.asp?file=/2004/7/22/sports/8496434&sec=sports).

[Name removed]

1. Deleted message

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[patdem]

2. Tank, just because you WANT something to be does not make it so

Robert Frisk who is a journalist who is in Iraq and all others say it is getting worse not better..It is not a WANT...it is a FACT..do you know the difference????

[rfranklin]

3. Click your ruby slippers together and say....

"There's an Iraq that's just like home...there's an Iraq that's just like home...."

[Barrett808]

5. It's a fair question, but I submit that the "job" can't be "finished"

In the best of circumstances, democracy and stability are unlikely to succeed in Iraq. And what pertains are close to the worst circumstances imaginable.

I'll further suggest that despite the desperately optimistic tone set by the hawks, the US now understands this reality. Hence we have Robert Fisk reporting that the US has given up, hoping to keep a lid on the catastrophe until January, when nominal elections might be held, after which we'll wipe our hands of the whole mess and blame the Iraqis.

In the interim, the State Department, taking over from the Pentagon, has reverted to its old formula: Install a strongman ("Saddam lite") and use proxy forces to rule with an iron first. Hence we have John "Death Squad" Negroponte and a former Mukhabarat assassin, Iyed Allawi, double-teaming to bring Honduras-style tyranny to Iraq.

[Barrett808]

6. BTW, Welcome to DU, Tank!

Hope you enjoy it!

:hi:

[Trajan]

7. We want ALL the jobs finished ....

There was a War on Poverty: yet there are still poor people all over the nation ... right here in America ...

Do you want the job finished, Tank ? ..

There are serious concerns about the employment picture here in the US: ... the GOP have taken 2.4 TRILLION dollars from the public coffers, supposedly to 'stimulate job growth' ..... and STILL have a HUGE loss of jobs here in america ... When with THAT job be finished ?? ...

Will they finish that job ?? ... Do you want that job finished too Tank ? ...

The environment is being attacked daily by friends of the GOP, the people are being hoodwinked and hornswaggled by the friends of the GOP, with the help of George Bush and his illicit White House: ...

Someone must save America from these lying cheats, Tank ....

Are you up to the task, Tank ? ... Damn I hope so ...

That is the biggest job of all ....

Guess what Tank ? .... The Ancient site of Babylonia, the cradle of civilization, has been awash in death, murder and destruction since the moment the first stone paver was laid .... THOUSANDS of years of filth, horror and human stench ....

And now: Will YOU come along and put an end to that tradition ?

Will YOU, Tank, put an end to the endless degradation of Mesopotamia ?? ...

You, and what Christ ? ...

[BlueEyedSon]

4. Let's see... what other jobs could GWB finish.....

1) Shredding the constitution
2) Canceling elections permanently
3) Eliminating all environmental regulation
4) Trashing the US economy permanently
5) Destroying all social services
6) Offshoring the middle class

[REVOLT823]

8. Kurdistan is much more advanced in restoration

Some areas of Iraq, like Kurdistan, are much further advanced along the road to normalcy, as one of the best correspondents out of Iraq, Nicholas Rothwell of the Australian, writes: "The construction of an open, democratic, Western-oriented society may be an elusive dream in the rest of Iraq, but it is a solid reality here. The Kurds even control their own territory with their Peshmerga militia, separate from the Iraqi armed forces."

NO shit, because they are oding everything possible to break away from the rest of the country, as in "The Kurds even control their own territory with their Peshmerga militia, separate from the Iraqi armed forces."

This sounds, to me, like the beginnings of civil war, like Afghanistan, each section controlled by a different warlord, so will Iraq be divided along Sunni, Shia, and Kurd lines, or whole country will descend into civil war.

[muriel_volestrangler]

9. Yeah, follow the link to the original Australian article

and you get the very next paragraph:
" The Kurdish people, though, want more, and their wishes could spell the eventual end of Iraq in its present form. From the intellectuals to the bazaar merchants, the demand is clear: Kurdistan should be a free nation-state."

The title of the whole Australian piece is "In the Market for Kurdish Liberation"!

Some more bits from it:
" However, the general opinion has long been clear. Two months before the handover by the US-led Coalition Provisional Authority to the new central Government in Baghdad on June 28, an independent plebiscite was organised in northeast Iraq by a Kurdish professor, Halkawt Abdallah.

More than 2 million people, a majority of the adult population, took part, despite the tense conditions, and voted overwhelmingly for independence."
and:
" "It's the US that decides what happens here." "

The WSJ piece is shameless distortion.

[lanparty]

10. I'm actually ROOTING for Kurdish liberation ...

Those folks have been our best allies in the region while dealing with Saddam Hussein. They've also been kicked around and oppressed by Iraq, Syria, Turkey and Iran. It's really time for the Kurds to have their own country.