Posted by
Wally Lind on Wednesday, September 27, 2006 1:59:31 PM
I don't know about you, but I am not an expert on the Middle East, Muslims, Military Affairs, or Religion. I am a consumer of news and informed opinion. I am a conservative voter, and my conservatism is self-described, and I like it that way.
I have grown more and more confused about what is happening in the country and world, due to the increasing lack of crediblity of the media and the talking heads they present us with. These "experts" are often other journalists or people who have been away from firsthand knowledge (as government officials have or are supposed to have). Even the "fair and balanced" news outlets have a leftie/democrat and a rightie/republican who have totaly opposite views of the same information. Since I am a conservative, I tend to believe the talking head on the GOP side, although their words sometime don't ring very true.
I have no idea how its really going in Iraq or Afghanistan. The left-wing media says we are losing both badly. The right-wing media says we are on a long cruve toward winning. The raw information upon which we could draw our own conclusions is not given by media on either side. We hear dialy counts of our GIs and civilians who are killed, but are only rarely given the number and type of American enemies killed. We also hear very little of the areas of both countries where our soldiers and the Iraqi Army are bored to tears. I seem to read between the lines that the functions of government in Iraq and Afghanistan are being done on a daily basis, that the insurgents have not been able to disrupt these or the economies at all.
I see polls of Iraqis that say a majority of them want our Army to leave, but I sure don't see any polls that measure the level of support for the Iragi Government.