Iraqi sacrifices himself to save the lives of U.S. troops

[Kidlicious]

Originally posted by Patroklos
Because your the one making that determination. Its what you think he needs to know, not what he thinks.

The same hold true for news networks and their audiences.

This might be hard for you to believe, but they know what people need to know, just like competent people who are hired to make reports know what they are doing. They know what the person reading those reports needs to know. If the person reading the reports already knew what they needed to know they wouldn't need a report.

[Shrapnel12]

I repeat, the vast majority of civilian casualties due to sectarian violence go unreported in televised media. This is a basic fact. The media isn't covering 62 Iraqi deaths a day.

This is irrelevant. Even if the media reports only 10 out of 1000 negative stories and 0 positive stories, there's still a bias. If not this particular story, the media should be reporting other positive stories. All news agencies have a ethical responsibility to provide both sides of the story. Something they've abandoned for the sake of ratings.

As to whether this story is newworthy or not, why wouldn't it be? I can scan google and find a dozen stories less newsworthy then this. Is it front page? No, but newspapers print unimportant "feel good" stories all the time and many enjoy a good story about heroism. Your real problem is that it came from Iraq and your afraid it's going to prove your opposition to the war wrong. Relax, this hardly does so, but why not show America that there is more then terrorists in Iraq? Maybe because you want us to abandon the good people in Iraq to their fate? That's what the anti-war people want, withdraw all troops immediately and let the people of Iraq kill each other. Better them then us right? And they deserve it anyway because there's nothing good in that country and they all hate us anyway right?

[Kidlicious]

They are sure to report positive news from Iraq when there is some. This isn't positive enough. The same goes for negative news. A lot of negative news doesn't make it because it's just not negative enough.

[Arrian]

Your real problem is that it came from Iraq and your afraid it's going to prove your opposition to the war wrong

I can't speak for anyone else, but for me (an opponent of the war)...

This one action, while heroic and laudable, will do no such thing.

-Arrian

[Ramo]

No, he's right. My opposition to the war is exclusively based on the premise that every single Iraqi is a worthless human being. I've been thoroughly bested....

[Ramo]

For the people who didn't take their stupid pill this morning, this is an example of potentially significant good news about Iraq:

US pressure forces move to reconciliation


· Shia, Sunni and Kurdish parties achieve consensus
· Deal may not be enough to end boycott of cabinet

Ian Black, Middle East editor and Ed Pilkington
Monday August 27, 2007
The Guardian

Nuri al-Maliki, the Iraqi prime minister, and fellow leaders in the country have reached consensus on key areas of national reconciliation, under mounting US pressure to demonstrate political progress on the eve of a key report to Congress on the Baghdad security "surge".

The Shia prime minister appeared on television flanked by Jalal Talabani, the country's Kurdish president, and the Sunni vice-president, Tareq al-Hashemi, to announce a deal on easing restrictions on former members of the Ba'ath party joining the civil service and military.

Easing de-Ba'athification laws passed after the 2003 US invasion has long been seen as a vital step if disenchanted Sunnis, who formed the backbone of Saddam Hussein's regime and, since its fall, of the insurgency, are to be persuaded to take part in Iraqi political life.

Agreement was also reported on holding provincial elections and releasing detainees held without charge across the country, two more of the "benchmarks" set by the Bush administration for political movement it hopes will stave off mounting congressional demands for a withdrawal from Iraq.

It was not immediately clear how, or when, these moves would be implemented and how far they would go to reversing the almost total Sunni boycott of the cabinet - the centre of Mr Maliki's difficulties. The beleaguered prime minister, facing mounting criticism from within the Bush administration, announced earlier that Mr Hashemi's Iraqi Islamic party was about to join with the four Shia and Kurdish parties which recently forged an alliance.

Mr Maliki said a committee formed by the parties had reviewed the current political stalemate and "accomplished some solutions".

Last week a US national intelligence report cast doubt on Mr Maliki's ability to heal the country's sectarian divide and predicted "the Iraqi government will become more precarious over the next six to 12 months".

The report forecast increased criticism from within the Shia-led coalition, as well as from Sunni and Kurdish parties. "Broadly accepted political compromises required for sustained security, long-term political progress and economic development are unlikely to emerge unless there is a fundamental shift in the factors driving Iraqi political and security developments," the report said.

In separate comments, Mr Maliki lashed out at his detractors with invective that focused on the Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton. At the end of a week that saw George Bush make a rare attack on the Iraqi leadership, Mr Maliki ridiculed US politicians who talked about the country "as if it were one of their villages". At a press conference in Baghdad, he reserved his harshest words for Mrs Clinton and her Democratic colleague Senator Carl Levin, saying they needed to "come to their senses".

Mrs Clinton has made criticism of the Bush administration's prosecution of the war a mainstay of her presidential campaign. After a two-day trip to Iraq with Mr Levin, she last week added her voice to a growing list of influential Americans calling for the removal of Mr Maliki. She urged the Iraqi parliament to replace him with a "less divisive and more unifying figure".

There were further signs of Mr Maliki's weakening grip on power when the former temporary prime minister, Ayad Allawi, removed his faction from the "unity" government on Saturday and put himself forward as an alternative.

The growing pressure on the Iraqi leader comes at a sensitive moment in relations between Washington and Baghdad. The American commander in Iraq, General David Petraeus, will soon present Congress with his analysis of the success or otherwise of the so-called "surge".

Meanwhile, the Ministry of Defence said last night that British forces have withdrawn from a base in Basra that they had shared with Iraqi police in the first phase of a plan to move all troops out of the city centre.

A small number of troops had been stationed at the provincial joint coordination centre where they had been helping to train Iraqi police.

Control of the facility has now been handed over to the Iraqi army.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/Iraq/Story/0,,2157006,00.html

The story in the opening peace is not.

[Arrian]

And THAT is the sort of thing (though it sounds like a shaky baby step) "the surge" was designed to facilitate.

IF the Iraqis manage to strike a deal that convinces all three major groups that it's in their interests to be a part of the Iraqi government, then the Surge really will have have achieved something. I sure hope so.

We'll see.

-Arrian

[Arrian]

Incidently, this:

That's what the anti-war people want, withdraw all troops immediately and let the people of Iraq kill each other

Is also inaccurate, like most of shrapnel's arguments.

There are, I figure, three groups of "anti-war people" -

1) anti-war from the start, want immediate withdrawl
2) anti-war from the start, think we must stay, at least for now, to prevent civil war
3) pro-war at the start, now want withdrawl

(a 4th group, pro-war, want to stay, cannot possibly be encompassed by "anti-war people").

I think the 1 folks are wrong, as I'm in group 2. Group 3 pisses me off.

-Arrian

[Patroklos]

This might be hard for you to believe, but they know what people need to know

A commie and a fascist now eh?

What about when those people have agendas?

[Patroklos]

Anti-U.S. cleric suspends his militia in Iraq

BAGHDAD, Iraq (CNN) -- Anti-American Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr has ordered a suspension of his Mehdi Army militia for up to six months for restructuring, a senior aide said Wednesday.


Iraqis carry the coffin of a pilgrim killed in Karbala clashes during a funeral Wednesday in Najaf.

The move follows battles in Karbala and other cities between the Mehdi Army and Badr Organization, the armed wing of the Supreme Islamic Council of Iraq -- hostilities that left more than 50 people dead and scores injured.

Hazem al-Araji, who read the cleric's order on Iraqi state TV, said it applies to all members of the fighting force.

"For the sake of public interest, we have decided to issue the following: Suspend the Mehdi Army, with no exception, for a maximum of six months starting from the date of this release, to restructure it in a way that would preserve its ideological principles," al-Araji said.

He announced three days of mourning and the closing of all of al-Sadr's offices for the same period of time to condemn the events in Karbala. That three-day period begins Thursday. He also called for an investigation into the Karbala fighting. Watch clashes amid crowds of pilgrims in Karbala »

In response, Lt. Col. Christopher Garver, a U.S. military spokesman, said, "We have always said we welcome those who want to participate positively in the future of Iraq."

He added that "U.S. forces welcome anyone and any leader who attempts to bring down the violence and rein in criminal behavior."

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Al-Sadr calls for calm after Shiite militias clash
The suspension order raises questions about how much weight al-Sadr's decree will carry with the factions aligned with his fighting force.

The cleric has openly opposed violent actions before. On Tuesday, he called for calm and urged his followers not to attack rivals' offices.

But observers suspect many Mehdi Army fighters are more radical than al-Sadr. The U.S. military, when announcing arrests of Mehdi Army fighters, often refers to them as "rogue" members.

A top Iraqi official used that terminology Wednesday discussing the fighting in Karbala.

Mowaffak al-Rubaie, Iraq's national security adviser, said the hostilities were spurred by "rogue" elements of the Mehdi Army and other "extremists" who want to bring down the government.

"And we have started to clean the Iraqi security police and the army from those elements that have infiltrated the police in particular," he said.

Al-Rubaie said both Shiite and Sunni extremists are working to undermine a "national reconciliation" government.

He said Iraqi security forces are in control in the aftermath of the fighting in Karbala, where hundreds of thousands of Shiite pilgrims converged to commemorate the birthday of the revered historic 12th imam.

The clashes prompted the evacuation of many pilgrims, who fled to places such as Hilla and Najaf, prompting authorities to impose security measures, including a stiff daytime curfew in Karbala.

Hostilities between Shiites extended to other regions, such as Baghdad and Babil, where attackers torched at least 10 Supreme Islamic Council of Iraq offices. Eleven people, at least five in Baghdad and at least six in Babil, were killed.

Al-Rubaie called the suspension of the Mehdi Army "good news" if it turns out to be true. "We want to see it happening on the ground," he said.

Other developments


U.S. soldiers released eight members of an Iranian delegation Wednesday, a day after the group was arrested at a Baghdad hotel, the U.S. military and an Iraqi government spokesman said. Iran strongly protested the temporary detention of the Iranians, summoning the Swiss diplomat who represents U.S. affairs in Tehran to the Iranian Foreign Ministry on Wednesday, according to a report from Iran's state-run media.


A U.S. soldier was killed Tuesday during combat operations in northern Iraq, the military said. Since the war started, the U.S. military death toll in Iraq is 3,733, including seven civilian employees of the Defense Department.



At least five Iraqi policemen and a civilian were shot and killed Wednesday in northern Iraq, police in Mosul said. Gunmen in two vehicles opened fire on a police checkpoint in Hammam al-Ali, southwest of Mosul, police said.


Mortars fell in an eastern Baghdad neighborhood early Wednesday, killing one person and wounding six others, an Interior Ministry official said. A car bomb in western Baghdad wounded four people. Eleven unidentified bodies also were found Wednesday in Baghdad, an official said.

http://www.cnn.com/2007/WORLD/meast/...ain/index.html

I realize this has to mostly with security, so this doesn't count as relevant progress, right?

The italic portion is for Ramo, since apparently day to day violence in Iraq doesn't get reported

[Kidlicious]

Originally posted by Patroklos


A commie and a fascist now eh?

What about when those people have agendas?

When they have agendas they start wars, not end them. They just want ratings. That's their agenda.

[Patroklos]

They just want ratings. That's their agenda.

And what gets you ratings, explosions or flowers?

[Kidlicious]

Originally posted by Patroklos


And what gets you ratings, explosions or flowers?

Revolutions.

I don't watch the news except for the weather usually.

[Ramo]

The italic portion is for Ramo, since apparently day to day violence in Iraq doesn't get reported

You realize that the coverage of civilian casulaties was limited to three sentences, right? I'm not sure how that's supposed to be a point in your favor.

I realize this has to mostly with security, so this doesn't count as relevant progress, right?

I was thinking about posting the same thing. Also demonstrating my point that the idea that good news in Iraq isn't reported in the media are right wing delusions.

[Patroklos]

I was thinking about posting the same thing. Also demonstrating my point that the idea that good news in Iraq isn't reported in the media are right wing delusions.

Some things are too big for even CNN to glaze over, but it was nice to see they didn't forget to tack on todays violence. I am sure the 600,000 odd troops operating in Iraq today didn't accomplish anything worth reporting.