Positive things in Iraq

I am having an ongoing discussion with a friend who is libertarian conservative, not a big fan of President Bush, but likely not to vote for Kerry, either. Anyway we were talking about Fox News vs. the other networks, and he said, that "Well, the thing people like about Fox News is that along with seeing all the problems and the prison and such, you also see the good things our troops are doing. Helping to open schools and such."

At the time I responded that there was more to fox bias than that; but it did get me to thinking; are there positive things going on in Iraq?

I mean leave aside the question of whether we should have invaded or not (we shouldn't have) and I'm not suggesting we should ignore the Abu Ghraib Prison Abuse/Torture. But do we pay enough attention to positive events in Iraq? Or do we pay the right amount of attention?

Does seem like though even if we did cover every positive step taken twice, we'd still only a third of the way up the negative side of the scale.

Bryant
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must be a current talking point, im hearing it from all the repubs i argue with on the net. apparently some marines delivered some toys and that wasnt covered either.

What good would a school for kids be if in a year it is crushed by a Fundlementalist Regime due to our incompetence. I have no doubt that many in Iraq are genuinely trying to better their lives, however any actions on their part is outweighed by 100 fold due to the incompetence of Bush*.

Remember when Bill Clinton was President? I know I heard the name "Monica Lewinsky" or the term "White Water" spoken every day, if not every hour on CNN, et al. for years. I don't really recall any news media covering how well Clinton's programs were working. In fact I recall when he tried to do things like extend National Park status he was ridiculed as a tree hugger. Al Gore was derided for global warming.

So, no, in general I don't think the news is doing anything different. They always go for the sleazy, the dirty, the shocking and the negative. That seems to be what infotainment is all about.

But to be specific...I have seen stories in my paper (a NYT owned paper) and on CNN about "rebuilding." But if you think they should spend more column space on that than the abuse, torture, rape and murder...will not happen. People don't watch Faux to hear "good things happening for the poor Iraqi's"...they DON'T want to hear what's really going on. A female soldier returned to my area the other week...she said it was out of control over there. Very bad situation. So, why would we focus on the obviously trivial things like putting floors in schools? Besides, they were schools we helped destroy, so rebuilding what we blew up is not exactly a positive thing we should pat each other on the back for...it should be the normal civilized thing to do.

The violence makes for better television.

Bryant

We'll be able to discuss the positive things after reading about them.

and there are some good soldiers ( like SollyMack's husband)
However, I think so many people think that before the war that Iraq was like Afghanistan. Iraq and especially Baghdad was a fairly modern city. They also had plenty of schools and girls were educated and women had a place in their society. If we hadn't put sancitons on Iraq in the 90's who knows what the place would have been like.

I think it is weird to brag about building stuff when we are the ones who bombed the shit out of it.

that closed the schools and hospitals in the first place. Of course we have to help open them back up . . .