Tim Blair

"military government official'"???

Yes, but what do "military civilian officials" have to say.

Kidding aside, the view downrange is a hell of alot better than the self licking ice cream cones of the leftonistas.

By "numerous local anti-American organizations throughout the zone" and "rapid increase in the number of attacks on American soldiers", the NYT must be alluding to their own journalists and the like who are holed up in Baghdad hotels and sending in hypercritical, overblown accounts of US and Coalition efforts.

For once, they may be right:

http://www.back-to-iraq.com/archives/000771.php

The relevent passage is this:

"To those who think that reporters aren’t supporting the war effort enough and “refuse” to report good news, well, here’s a shocker: There isn’t much good news to report. The security situation is growing worse. The power is still bad (three hours on, three hours off, or so.) Major U.S. contractors are bypassing Iraqi companies, leading to growing resentment. What kinda sorta good news there is is being pretty well covered. The (maybe) truce between Moqtada al-Sadr’s Mahdi Army and U.S. forces in the south, the coming together, however shakily, of a caretaker government. I refuse to reprint the press releases that pour out of the CPA on any given day. Most of the “good news” they release has to do with passing out free soccer balls to kids. Is this what should be reported when U.S. troops and Iraqis are dying every day?"

"I refuse to reprint the press releases that pour out of the CPA on any given day."

Yeah, but he'll uncritically quote an obviously emotionally distraught Iraqi woman at the site of a car-bombing. Of course, she is blaming Americans, so that definitiely makes her quote-worthy in his book.

As Indy Jones said in Raiders of the Lost Ark:

"Nazis, I hate Nazis!"

Sidebar: We still have troops in Germany. Nearly 60 years later.

Talk about a quagmire.

SMG

Passing out "press releases that pour out of the CPA" isn't reporting, either. But they're probably a starting point--unless you have another agenda.

And of course we know that Iraqis weren't being killed everyday when Saddam was in power, so it must be worse now. (Though someone could point out that absence of evidence doesn't prove evidence of absence [of killing].)

His article is one big opinion piece you've taken hook-line-and-sinker.

For example, he cites US forces as closing off thoroughfares, seemingly at random, with no explanation given. But then explains it is USUALLY due to a suspicious vehicle or a road side attack. Now which is it? NO explanation, or USUALLY an explanation. It can't be both! And are road side attacks, and suspicious vehicles anything other than random? Well, sorry for the inconvenience to the automobile driver. Perhaps the driver would rather be subject to the RANDOM vehicle and road side attacks that occur. Mr. Back-to-Iraq demonstrates extremely poor situational awareness for someone in a battle zone, and as a writer, he's having a great deal of difficulty explaining it all.

"The Iraqi attitude toward the American occupation forces has swung from apathy and surface friendliness to active dislike."

...probably due journalists stiffing waiters at hotel bars.

Since the French actively dislike Americans after America liberated France, maybe Iraq’s dislike of Americans is a sign of nuance; independence and sophistication.

No good news? "Hundreds of thousands of Iraqis not dead?" is bad news?

Excuse me guys, hate to be the Lowell Weicker turd in the party punchbowl, but Tim's story at the top is from a report on the US occupation and rebuilding in Germany in 1945.

He just changed a few words to make it sound like it was from Iraq.

I'll go away now.

SMG

SMG,

Paul Ringo likes it unexplained and altered much better. It fits in with his favorite negative Iraqi blogger's views perfectly that way.

SMG, your point is? Tim clearly sys....

"Some words may accidentally have been altered during transmission. Check the above link for the original text."

I'm not sure who needs the [sarcasm] [/sarcasm] taglines here, Tim or you.

OK, then. The NYT must be alluding to their own journalists and the like who are holed up in BERLIN hotels and sending in hypercritical, overblown accounts of US and ALLIES' efforts.

The lamestream media are becoming the barfstream media.

Real Jeffs:
Yes, I know that TIM was aware of the original source, i.e. that is was about post-war Germany and NOT post-war Iraq.

Sarcasm noted.

My comment was directed at those posters who missed Tim's "clue" and believed the story above was about Iraq today.

Sarcasm not noted.

SMG

My apologies, SMG.

Real Jeffs:
Totally accepted.

Thanks.

SMG

No, I'm not buying it. It's a coincidence that the words changed from post-war Germany sound like the constant drivel from the NYTimes. You'll have to prove those words haven't been written about Iraq for me to accept that it's a parody of our current excellent front line reports from Iraq ;)

Forbes:
Screendumps of the original articles are available from The CounterRevolutionary.

Tim:
You'll find more in the same vein over at The Command Post. With attribution to you where appropriate. One example:

March 23
British Occupation Officials announced today that they were prepared to use military armor quell Iraqi hunger rioters in the British zone.
Mobile armored squads have been organized to put down riots and root out sabotage groups taking advantage of tension resulting from the general hunger, the British announced.
Armored cars will join military forces protecting food convoys as soon as additional 'difficulty' occurs, the announcement said.
Severe restrictions are to be placed upon the Iraqis to prevent them from buying and devouring their entire month's rations 'in a few days', authorities said. Iraqi officials said that this had happened on a large scale in Basra this month.
The British expressed doubts that 70 per cent of Basra's population was without bread because of this practice, as the Iraqi civilan officials claimed.
"Checks within the last twenty-four hours show that bakers' shops still have adequate supplies of flour." one British official said.
"We believe the looting yesterday was the result of a highly vociferous minority."

One more thing : A confession. I was totally sucked in, until I read the original article. Nice Job, had me fooled completely.

Meet the new boss, same as the old boss...

Bad tim! You trick me!

(God, I've got to stop being so stupid.)

I think, however, it shows the state of things that I expect this sort of thing now.

For once, they may be right:

Paul,
I don't know much about this Chris Allbritton, but at first glance he looks a mini-me version of Paul McGeough and the anti-war press in general, and this supposed quote from a apparently distraught "older women in a black abaya" that he used to try and portray the general feeling in Iraq does little to detract from that impression:

“We didn’t have car bombs before, terror before,” she continued.
“Everything came with the Coalition forces
"we don't like the occupation. Please leave, we don't like you"

Its classic McGeough. Its just too perfectly suits what the anti-war crew want to hear Iraqi's saying (almost like it was thought up by a anti-war protestor instead of an "older women in a black abaya")

But then again, I suppose if the quote was fabricated it would be pretty stupid to have the woman saying that there wasn't any terror in Iraq before the coalition arrived, I doubt there's anyone left who doesn't accept that around 20 million of the 22 million Iraqi's lived in real and sustained terror pre-invasion, so if the woman is in fact real, that statement clearly identifies her as someone who benefited from Saddams rule.

Don't the people who read the Times and New Yorker and take them seriously feel burned every time reality turns out, mere days later, to be the opposite of what these "journalists" were suggesting? I mean, I'm assuming that the majority of people reading those things wish to be informed (as opposed to people reading The Nation who just want other people to know what club they're in) but informing their readers is the very last thing that they've been doing since September 11th. Eventually, I have to assume, the readers will figure this out.

Paul Ringo --

Allbritton is up-front about his antiwar stance but stresses balanced reporting.

Yeah, sure and Dan Rather also "stresses balanced reporting." No bias here, no way.