Deinonychus antirrhopus

Media Bias on Iraq?

According to StrategyPage.com that is precisely the problem.

Much of the current reporting on Iraq warps the public perception of the past, as well as the present. The media plays down the fact that resistance from Sunni Arabs was widely discussed in the Pentagon before the war. But that wasn't a sexy story then, even though it is now. The coalition policing efforts have taken nearly a quarter million AK-47s off the streets, as well as huge quantities of RPGs, explosives and other weapons. Again, not interesting enough for prime time. Hundreds of Baath Party members have been arrested, including many senior people. Again, this is considered minor stuff. Every day, more neighborhoods get police and other services. But the reporting still tends to distort in favor of potential disasters that never seem to arrive. For example, power outages in Baghdad are an easy story on a slow news day. Rarely is it pointed out that Baghdad never had enough locally generated power to keep the lights on all the time. But as long as Saddam was in power, other parts of the country had their juice diverted to keep Baghdad lit. This meant Shiites and Kurds were left in the darkness so that Baghdad could sparkle. No more. Each part of Iraq is expected to take care of its own electrical needs now. Imagine the firestorm of protest if the old policies were continued in order to deprive the media of "Baghdad is dark" stories.

Not surprising, IMO. Everynight the local news reports the U.S. troop death count for the day (almost in ghoulish fashion). Yet we here nothing about the deaths and casualties of those doing the attacking. The impression? That the U.S. is getting hit by geurrillas that are inflicting casualties and are taking none. Is this accurate? I don't know, given all the crap we have learned that has gone I don't think the news should be taken at face value anymore.

An intrepid reporter could have discovered that the Pentagon knew all about the political, ethnic and religious complexities of Iraq. Numerous PowerPoint briefings on the subject have circulated in Washington for over a decade. SOCOM (Special Operations Command) has more Civil Affairs troops than it does Special Forces. And that's no accident. Special Forces has been practicing, for over half a century, to deal with what is happening in Iraq today. If you could get one to talk, they would tell you that they knew what was going to happen and they are on top of it.

Wait a minute. We have been told that the Pentagon and everybody was unprepared for this.

Now we have today's events which one has to admit are pretty significant. Are we to believe it was simply luck that somebody strolled into wherever the 101st are camped and spilled the beans. Seems unlikely to me.

(Via Instapundit.)