A Brief Overview of the Recent News in Iraq

Since none of the major news stories wish to present either a detailed and accurate picture of what's going on in Iraq (or even their own coverage), here's a good overview of current stories.

U.S. troop deaths show sharp July decline

BAGHDAD — The number of U.S. troops killed in Iraq has dropped sharply so far in July after reaching record levels in recent months, a possible sign that militants are weakening, the No. 2 U.S. commander in Iraq said Thursday.
"This is what we thought would happen once we took control of the safe havens" used by insurgents and militias, Lt. Gen. Ray Odierno said Thursday. "We've now taken control of those areas."
Though he called the drop in U.S. deaths an "initial positive sign," Odierno cautioned, "I need a bit more time to see if it's a true trend or not."

Great news, no doubt. The soldiers are dying in smaller numbers because they're being allowed to do what they do best: hunt down and slaughter our enemies. Things are looking up in Iraq for the first time in years. We're no longer having progress ADMIDST bombings and death, we're having progress by reducing those bombings and deaths.

Not that you'd know this, judging by headlines like:
More Republicans want limits in Iraq

Same newspaper, yes. But guess which headline is getting more play outside of the pages of USA Today?

WASHINGTON — Republicans increasingly are backing a new approach in the Iraq war that could become the party's mantra come September. It would mean narrowly limited missions for U.S. troops in Iraq but let President Bush decide when troops should leave.
So far, the idea has not attracted the attention of Democratic leaders. They are under substantial pressure by anti-war groups to consider only legislation that orders troops from Iraq.
But the GOP approach quickly is becoming the attractive alternative for Republican lawmakers who want to challenge Bush on the unpopular war without backtracking from their past assertions that it would be disastrous to set deadlines for troop withdrawals.
"This is a necessary adjustment in the national debate to reintroduce bipartisanship, to stop the 'gotcha' politics that are going on that seem to be driven by fringes on both sides and change the terms of the discussion," said Rep. Phil English, R-Pa.

Despite the new strategy going well, cowardly Republicans, terrified of the polls, seek to abandon ship, using the soldiers as life perservers. Like the liberals who demanded that we have a surge for two years, then (one we got it), demanded a change of course...so, too, do we have this now on the left.

This one gets more play because the Republicans are "stabbing their own leadership in the back". Right wingers cannibalizing their own is the media's favorite kinda story. Unfortunately, war by committee is a terrible idea that gets soldiers killed.

The only other story that the media loves more than dead soldiers, or anti- war Republicans...
Report: Troops shot Iraqi many times

SAN ANTONIO (AP) — A soldier charged with premeditated murder in the death of an Iraqi shot the man several times with a rifle before ordering a subordinate to do the same, according to an Army document filed in the case.
Sgt. 1st Class Trey A. Corrales of San Antonio and Spc. Christopher P. Shore of Winder, Ga., are charged with one count of murder in the death, which the U.S. military has said happened June 23 near Iraq's northern city of Kirkuk.
A one-paragraph document, called a "charge sheet" in the military, states that Corrales fired multiple rounds before directing Shore "to then shoot the detainee," according to a report in Sunday's editions of the San Antonio Express-News. It does not state the number of shots the soldiers allegedly fired.

Reporters just love stories of our soldiers doing wrong. Haditha and Guantanimo Bay come to mind. If this was just honesty in reporting (like here, showing the good with the bad) that'd be one thing. But from sources which repeatedly refuse to show the progress our soldiers make, and on the occasions where they HAVE to report on good news (Zarqawi), they down play the hell out of it-it's just an opportunity to make our eeeevvviiiillll soldiers look like the monsters the left always claim them to be.
We should never hesitate to show the good with the bad, because that's how we inform the public about the reality of war. But in cherry picking incidents like and putting it to the constant beat of the death toll, we create quite a dishonest picture indeed.

While a few bad soldiers commit acts like described above (if even true), the majority of our soldiers do good things like this:
U.S. grants help Iraqis launch business dreams

BAGHDAD — Hamid Hussein has a simple goal and a major problem.
Hussein wants work, and after more than a year with no job, he's trying to start his own carpentry shop in Baghdad making home and office furniture.
"I have a family I need to feed," Hussein said.
But what Hussein lacks is the $5,600 he says is necessary to rent a storefront, buy supplies and hire two workers at $200 a month. This week Hussein, 43, joined dozens of Iraqis lining up at the Iraqi-American Chamber of Commerce and Industry to apply for grants that pay up to half of what Iraqis need to start a business.
"This is my golden opportunity," Hussein said. "Nobody before offered such a great favor to jobless people."
Many Iraqis are trying to launch their dreams — and get work and income — when they fill out paperwork for a U.S.-funded small-business grant program administered by the Chamber of Commerce.
Other methods of financing in Iraq are few and far between. Iraqi banks are hesitant to provide credit to small businessmen, in part because of the risk of violence and the constant flow of Iraqis out of the country. That means many Iraqis must turn to family members for loans.
The program aims both to provide jobs and increase security. "We want to rescue Iraqi young men from the mayhem they live in," said Hussein Allawi, the spokesman for the Iraqi-American Chamber of Commerce.
"Providing jobs to Iraqis would prevent them from joining the insurgency and militias," Allawi said, "because when they get permanent jobs, they will be busy all the time."

Rebuilding an entire nation after it's collapsed into ashes is not an easy task. The fact that our soldiers have done such a spectacular job, it spite of the militias and foreigners, and al Quida trying to hinder the work. Our soldiers are just so committed to making Iraq into an ally and making the lives of the Iraqis better that it's gonig ahead full steam.

Well, we can at least count on USA Today to be fair and accurate, reporting on the good, and bad, progress and failure.
For the most accurate news, CentCom.Mil is the best source out there.

One wonders why we can't get such an accurate picture out of the other outlets...
It's almost like they have a dog in the race:

THE DETENTION OF AP PHOTOGRAPHER BILAL HUSSEIN

Oops, maybe they do...