News About Iraq, From Iraq

Perhaps you are familiar with Michael Yon, a military veteran who now serves as an independent journalist in Iraq.  Glenn Reynolds directs us to the latest post from Yon.  Here are a some snippets.

No thinking person would look at last year’s weather reports to judge whether it will rain today, yet we do something similar with Iraq news. The situation in Iraq has drastically changed, but the inertia of bad news leaves many convinced that the mission has failed beyond recovery, that all Iraqis are engaged in sectarian violence, or are waiting for us to leave so they can crush their neighbors. This view allows our soldiers two possible roles: either “victim caught in the crossfire” or “referee between warring parties.” Neither, rightly, is tolerable to the American or British public. (snip)

Anyone who has been in Iraq for longer than a few months, visited a handful of provinces, and spoken with a good number of Iraqis, likely would acknowledge that the reality here is complex and dynamic. But in the last six months it also has been increasingly hopeful, despite what the pessimistic dogma dome allows Americans and British to believe. (snip)

But it wasn’t until I spent that week back in the States that I realized how bad things have gotten. I believe we are witnessing a conspiracy of coincidences conflating to exert an incomprehensibly destructive force on the free press system that we largely take for granted. The fact that the week in question also happened to be when General Petraeus and Ambassador Crocker were delivering their reports to Congress makes me wonder if things are actually worse than I’ve assessed, and I returned to Iraq sadly convinced that General Petraeus now has to deal from a deck clearly stacked against him in both America and Iraq.

Here is the amazing part of Yon's post and it should be spread around South Dakota and elsewhere.  Yon is offering to members of National Newspaper Association the right to use excerpts and photos from his reporting for free. Here are the South Dakota members of the NNA.  I note that The Rapid City Journal is a member. I urge all South Dakota member papers to take Yon up on his offer. See Yon's post on the details.