Chicago Sun-Times: There's some good going on in Iraq

'The children will not leave the house," a mother of four recently told a reporter from USA Today. "They just sit at home all day watching satellite TV." Coming from Chicago or Tallahassee or Duluth, this slice of life wouldn't be noteworthy. But it comes from Baghdad, on a week when, according to the newspaper, most of Iraq had power for four consecutive days for the first time since Baghdad fell in April.

If you didn't see this story, or hear that the sabotage and looting that were panicking so many commentators not long ago are now down, that factories are running again, schools and cafes and banks are reopening and "normal" life is returning, you're not alone. The headlines are dominated by the piecemeal violence designed to thwart U.S. plans to bring stability and democracy to Iraqi, to sap our strength and will -- and to thwart the spread of positive news about the progress being made. Without minimizing the loss of life suffered in recent car bombings, ambushes and other terrorist acts, we can understand the Bush administration's dismay with the negative news coming out of Iraq overshadowing the positive.

Whether that will change now that Bush and members of his power trust have launched a publicity offensive to promote the strides they are making remains to be seen. It is the nature of PR that once it is identified as such, much of the message is lost to the medium. As a result, national security adviser Condoleezza Rice's report on the new vitality in Iraq during her appearance in Chicago this week may not have come across as strongly as it should have. Nor may some of the powerful points she made pertaining to the recent report of chief U.S. weapons inspector David Kay. His acknowledgement of not finding stockpiles of weapons of mass destruction in Iraq has gotten plenty of play. But his uncovering of solid evidence of Saddam Hussein's intentions and systematic efforts to manufacture the weapons -- including "significant amounts of equipment" concealed from United Nations inspectors -- has gone underreported. As Bush said Wednesday, it is now "undeniable -- undeniable" that Saddam violated U.N. Security Council Resolution 1441, which threatened "serious consequences" if Iraq failed to disarm. And as Rice told the Chicago Council on Foreign Relations, the "terrible prospect" of Iraq giving weapons to terrorists "could not be ignored or wished away." Not after September 11.

Rice called for patience. That's reasonable. It has been only six months since the statue of Saddam was pulled down. As was seen in Germany and Japan, rebuilding a country takes a lot longer than that. In Iraq, ethnic and religious differences make unification -- or mutual tolerance -- an even more extraordinarily complicated challenge. There are strong signs, though, that good things are happening -- signs that can't and shouldn't be ignored.

http://www.suntimes.com/output/commentary/cst-edt-edits10.html

Looks like the Sun-Times has crawled onto the Bush PR bandwagon.

:eyes:

... we can understand the Bush administration's dismay with the negative news coming out of Iraq overshadowing the positive.

Whether that will change now that Bush and members of his power trust have launched a publicity offensive to promote the strides they are making remains to be seen. It is the nature of PR that once it is identified as such, much of the message is lost to the medium.

Can you believe these people say that the good news is being supressed, then say that a Bush PR campaign is underway?

They are basically admitting to being a part of a PR campaign!

Oh and what is the "good" they refer to? The fact that MOST of Iraq had power for FOUR consecutive DAYS for the first time in SIX MONTHS! The northeast of America lost power for a couple of days, and this was HUGE news, but Iraq not having power for SIX MONTHS is no big deal?

Yep, there is all sorts of good news, isn't there? Forget the total lack of security, MOST of Iraq had FOUR consecutive DAYS of power for the first time in SIX MONTHS! Things are going well!

This paper is not even worth wrapping food in! It is so full of shit it would contaminate the food and probably kill you! Hell, I wouldn't even wipe my arse on it, it would only end up dirtier than when I started!

No, they have been pulling the wagon! The Sun-Times is owned by the Hollinger Corp., which owns the Jerusalem Post, which has Richard Perle on its board, and is owned by Sir Conrad Black, a Rupert wannabe.
They ain't crawlin', they're drivin'!

I didn't know about this connection.