Why is the media ignoring Iraq?

[GHook93]

For the record I think Obama made the right move by pulling out of Iraq and Bush's bonehead war did nothing for us.

That said. You hear NOTHING about Iraq, even though it's slipping into chaos. Sunnis are moving out of Shia neighborhoods, violence is escalating, Sunni Politicians are boycotting the Iraqi Parliament, Turk is bombing Kurdistan and the Sunnis are thinking of making a push for a separate state!

It's a fragile situation ready to explode. Yet the mainstream media reports nothing on the situation. The average American would think nothing dangerous is going on over there. Heck it's even hard to find news on Iraq via a google search.

Fearful, Iraq's Sunnis leave mixed neighborhoods - Yahoo! News
Ahmed al-Azami, a Sunni Muslim, has owned a house in Baghdad's Shiite neighborhood of Shaab since 1999. But when Shiite residents recently began questioning why he, a Sunni, was living among them, he decided it was time to leave.

His story and similar tales by other Sunnis suggest Iraqis are again segregating themselves along sectarian lines, prompted by a political crisis pulling at the explosive Sunni-Shiite divide just weeks after the American withdrawal left Iraq to chart its own future.

Feeling marginalized, some Iraq Sunnis eye autonomy - Yahoo! News
BAGHDAD (Reuters) – Amjad Abdul-Salam is one of a growing number of Iraqis who say a separate state for his fellow Sunni Muslims is the only way to stop the country sliding back into sectarian chaos.

Tensions between Iraq's Sunni and Shi'ite Muslims are rising after the United States pulled out the last of its troops on December 18, leaving the country run by a fragile unity government.

Hours after the exit, Shi'ite Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki sparked the worst political crisis in a year by announcing an arrest warrant for the Sunni vice president on charges he led death squads. The premier also tried to get his Sunni deputy fired.

Sunnis are a minority in Iraq but for decades held the reins of power under dictator Saddam Hussein. Many say they have felt marginalized since the 2003 U.S.-led invasion that toppled Saddam and paved the way for the rise of the Shi'ite majority.

Abdul-Salam, a Sunni economics graduate who runs a stationery shop in Baghdad, sees little hope in the future for his three children.

"Living in an Iraq where Shi'ites are controlling power and most key jobs while we are always looked at as followers of Saddam will not be tolerated," said Abdul-Salam, 38.

"Without autonomy, Iraq will hit rock bottom and civil war and endless political crises will not be averted. This is a message that all politicians should understand."

 

[katsung47]

A failed war - Iraq the world’s fourth-most-corrupt country and by far the worst in the Middle East. That's what an US asset politician in Iraq says.

How the U.S. and the world can help Iraq
By Ayad Allawi, Published: August 31



“More than eight years after Saddam Hussein’s regime was overthrown, basic services are in a woeful state: Most of the country has only a few hours of electricity a day. Blackouts were increasingly common this summer.

“Oil exports, still Iraq’s only source of income, are barely more than they were when Hussein was toppled. The government has squandered the boon of high oil prices and failed to create real and sustainable job growth. Iraq’s economy has become an ever more dysfunctional mix of cronyism and mismanagement, with high unemployment and endemic corruption.
“Transparency International ranks Iraq the world’s fourth-most-corrupt country and by far the worst in the Middle East. The promise of improved security has been empty, with sectarianism on the rise.”

False Promises

Allawi also cites the false promises of democracy:

“Despite failing to win the most seats in last year’s elections, Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki clung to power through a combination of Iranian support and U.S. compliance. He now shows an alarming disregard for democratic principles and the rule of law.

“Vital independent institutions such as the election commission, the transparency commission and Iraq’s central bank have been ordered to report directly to the office of the prime minister. Meanwhile, Maliki refuses to appoint consensus candidates as defense and interior ministers, as per last year’s power-sharing agreement.

“The government is using blatant dictatorial tactics and intimidation to quell opposition, ignoring the most basic human rights. Human Rights Watch reported in February on secret torture prisons under Maliki’s authority.

“In June, it exposed the government’s use of hired thugs to beat, stab and even sexually assault peaceful demonstrators in Baghdad who were complaining about corruption and poor services. These horrors are reminiscent of autocratic responses to demonstrations by failing regimes elsewhere in the region, and a far cry from the freedom and democracy promised in the new Iraq.

“Is this really what the United States sacrificed more than 4,000 young men and women, and hundreds of billions of dollars, to build? The trend of failure is becoming irreversible.”
So what is going on here? How can the U.S. media hail Petraeus’s “successful surge” and write about “victory at last” in Iraq when it appears that the Bush-Cheney-neocon intervention has created what amounts to a failed state in Iraq?


How the U.S. and the world can help Iraq - The Washington Post

 

[Mr Natural]

"Mission Accomplished!"

 

[C_Clayton_Jones]

Why is the media ignoring Iraq?

They’re not.

The American people are ignoring Iraq.

The media go where the ratings are.

 

[Mr. President]

Obama didn't pull out of Iraq the Iraqi Government told us to leave. Big difference. If they had asked us to stay we would have still been there.

 

[midcan5]

Bush Jr's score was settled, he got his target, Saddam, wasted billions, grew tired of it and moved on to more vacations and early retirement. Times change, scapegoats change, and the fight for truth justice and the America way has new targets. Only change in Iraq is who is killing who, and so it goes....

"I repeat: the entire war and occupation are immoral. If you criticize the Bush administration on the grounds that it "bungled" the war, this leaves one, and only one, inevitable implication: if they had prosecuted the war and occupation "competently," then you would have no complaints whatsoever. That is: you think the invasion and occupation of Iraq were justified and moral. If that's what you actually think, you belong in the Bush camp. You're arguing over managerial style, and about issues that are entirely trivial."
Once Upon a Time...: Trapped in the Wrong Paradigm: Three Handy Rules

 

[GHook93]

First, Obama pulled us out of Iraq (the right move I might add), not Bush. Saddam has been dead for a while now.

Second, your saying Bush's objective was to rid Iraq of Sadam, how is that different than Obama's objective of ridding Libya of Gaddiff. Much different methods. No one can argue that Obama's method was 10 fold better and I hope future militarymen learn to copy Obama's Libya strategy when trying to rid a country of a dictator.

Bush Jr's score was settled, he got his target, Saddam, wasted billions, grew tired of it and moved on to more vacations and early retirement. Times change, scapegoats change, and the fight for truth justice and the America way has new targets. Only change in Iraq is who is killing who, and so it goes....

"I repeat: the entire war and occupation are immoral. If you criticize the Bush administration on the grounds that it "bungled" the war, this leaves one, and only one, inevitable implication: if they had prosecuted the war and occupation "competently," then you would have no complaints whatsoever. That is: you think the invasion and occupation of Iraq were justified and moral. If that's what you actually think, you belong in the Bush camp. You're arguing over managerial style, and about issues that are entirely trivial."
Once Upon a Time...: Trapped in the Wrong Paradigm: Three Handy Rules

 

[toomuchtime_]

First, Obama pulled us out of Iraq (the right move I might add), not Bush. Saddam has been dead for a while now.

Second, your saying Bush's objective was to rid Iraq of Sadam, how is that different than Obama's objective of ridding Libya of Gaddiff. Much different methods. No one can argue that Obama's method was 10 fold better and I hope future militarymen learn to copy Obama's Libya strategy when trying to rid a country of a dictator.

Bush Jr's score was settled, he got his target, Saddam, wasted billions, grew tired of it and moved on to more vacations and early retirement. Times change, scapegoats change, and the fight for truth justice and the America way has new targets. Only change in Iraq is who is killing who, and so it goes....

"I repeat: the entire war and occupation are immoral. If you criticize the Bush administration on the grounds that it "bungled" the war, this leaves one, and only one, inevitable implication: if they had prosecuted the war and occupation "competently," then you would have no complaints whatsoever. That is: you think the invasion and occupation of Iraq were justified and moral. If that's what you actually think, you belong in the Bush camp. You're arguing over managerial style, and about issues that are entirely trivial."
Once Upon a Time...: Trapped in the Wrong Paradigm: Three Handy Rules

Obama did not pull us out of Iraq. The withdrawal had already been agreed to by the Bush administration before Obama became president, and when the time came to leave, Obama tried to get the Iraqis to agree to an extension, but they refused to do so unless US soldiers who were accused of committing crimes against Iraqis were subject to Iraqi law and Iraqi courts. Obama couldn't agree to this so he reluctantly pulled out.

Obama had no strategy for getting Qaddafi out of Libya, he was just a cheerleader for the Europeans, mostly the French. The UN resolution the French used to justify their bombing of Libya and supplying the rebels with weapons, and for which Obama was waving his pom poms, only authorized a no fly zone, not an all out bombing campaign. The French and our slogan meister president sought justification for the bombing campaign in the UN call to protect civilian lives, but so far we have no idea how many civilians, as opposed to rebels in civilian dress, Libyan forces killed and how many civilians the rebels and Europeans killed because of suspected ideological differences.

 

[RoccoR]

et al,

Interesting!

The militant organization that was once the scourge of the U.S. military campaign in Iraq and probably is responsible for more than 100 deaths in the country over the last few days has set its sights on launching attacks in the United States, intelligence officials said.

Al Qaeda in Iraq released a message this week that threatened to strike at the "heart" of the United States, and several associates of the group have been arrested in the U.S. and Canada in the last two years, said American officials, a sign that the organization has tried to establish a network in North America.
SOURCE: Al Qaeda in Iraq threatens attacks in U.S. - latimes.com

The Islamic State of Iraq, an Iraqi group linked to Al Qaeda, has claimed responsibility for a Monday barrage of attacks reported to have killed at least 115 people across the country.

The message, issued on extremist forums Tuesday, said the bombings and shootings were linked to a new campaign announced by its leader, Abu Bakr Baghdadi, last week to reassert its power in Iraq.

It claimed that foreign media had under-reported the attacks’ effect by "reducing the results of these operations and slandering the image of their perpetrators," according to a monitoring service.

The attacks made Monday the deadliest day in Iraq in more than two years, according to the Associated Press. Even before its Tuesday message was issued, the Al Qaeda-affiliated group was widely believed by outside experts and Western officials to be behind the offensive.

Al Qaeda in Iraq "are making desperate efforts to call on Sunnis to turn against their government," U.S. State Department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland said Monday. "They’re going to fail."
SOURCE: Al Qaeda claims responsibility for recent barrage of Iraq attacks - latimes.com

(COMMENT)

I don't think it is so much that Iraq has disappeared from the news, as it is that the media has shifted its attention to the Election; and the impression that America is not interested in Iraq any more. America would just as soon that phase of its history just fade away.

No one wants to highlight the fact that Iraq did not turn-out well.

Most Respectfully,
R

 

[High_Gravity]

et al,

Interesting!

The militant organization that was once the scourge of the U.S. military campaign in Iraq and probably is responsible for more than 100 deaths in the country over the last few days has set its sights on launching attacks in the United States, intelligence officials said.

Al Qaeda in Iraq released a message this week that threatened to strike at the "heart" of the United States, and several associates of the group have been arrested in the U.S. and Canada in the last two years, said American officials, a sign that the organization has tried to establish a network in North America.
SOURCE: Al Qaeda in Iraq threatens attacks in U.S. - latimes.com

The Islamic State of Iraq, an Iraqi group linked to Al Qaeda, has claimed responsibility for a Monday barrage of attacks reported to have killed at least 115 people across the country.

The message, issued on extremist forums Tuesday, said the bombings and shootings were linked to a new campaign announced by its leader, Abu Bakr Baghdadi, last week to reassert its power in Iraq.

It claimed that foreign media had under-reported the attacks’ effect by "reducing the results of these operations and slandering the image of their perpetrators," according to a monitoring service.

The attacks made Monday the deadliest day in Iraq in more than two years, according to the Associated Press. Even before its Tuesday message was issued, the Al Qaeda-affiliated group was widely believed by outside experts and Western officials to be behind the offensive.

Al Qaeda in Iraq "are making desperate efforts to call on Sunnis to turn against their government," U.S. State Department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland said Monday. "They’re going to fail."
SOURCE: Al Qaeda claims responsibility for recent barrage of Iraq attacks - latimes.com

(COMMENT)

I don't think it is so much that Iraq has disappeared from the news, as it is that the media has shifted its attention to the Election; and the impression that America is not interested in Iraq any more. America would just as soon that phase of its history just fade away.

No one wants to highlight the fact that Iraq did not turn-out well.

Most Respectfully,
R

Now that Americans are not dying in Iraq everyday people here are not interested in it anymore, besides this is what the Iraqis wanted. When we were there all I heard was "Oh those awful Americans we don't need them, if they left everything would be great" well they got what they wanted, and low and behold nothing has changed they are still blowing themselves up.