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Here at Excalibur, we’re not about politics and we’re not about taking sides for political gains. We are about national security and doing things better, smarter, collaboratively and innovatively. Very few media outlets are reporting the “good news” from Iraq that casualties of both the coalition and Iraqis are way down. While the news of any of our troops being killed or wounded is tragic, the trends are definitely positive and it’s not just the “surge” of additional troops that’s to be credited, it’s the change in our tactics and the reaching out to the Iraqi’s who are turning the tide against those that commit the violence. The slide above and others at this briefing by US Army Lt. General Odierno needs to known by all.
A month ago, Howard Kurtz interviewed Barbara Star of CNN and writer Robin Wright about the news reporting of Iraq. Here is a snippet from this article.
KURTZ: Barbara Starr, CNN did mostly quick reads by anchors of these numbers. There was a taped report on "LOU DOBBS TONIGHT." Do you think this story deserved more attention? We don't know whether it is a trend or not but those are intriguing numbers.
BARBARA STARR, CNN PENTAGON CORRESPONDENT: But that's the problem, we don't know whether it is a trend about specifically the decline in the number of U.S. troops being killed in Iraq. This is not enduring progress. This is a very positive step on that potential road to progress.
KURTZ: But let's say that the figures had shown that casualties were going up for U.S. soldiers and going up for Iraqi civilians. I think that would have made some front pages.
STARR: Oh, I think inevitably it would have. I mean, that's certainly -- that, by any definition, is news. Look, nobody more than a Pentagon correspondent would like to stop reporting the number of deaths, interviewing grieving families, talking to soldiers who have lost their arms and their legs in the war. But, is this really enduring progress?
Did you catch that? When the trend is negative, "certainly" news. But, what in her view is enduring progress? At what point is our media judged incopmetent for not reporting factual information? I don't know but the decline in our troops casualties and overall attacks is "certainly" good news to this observer.
To our troops in Iraq, we salute your success and wish you a safe return!