22 Responses to “Iraq: Spiegel bravely reports the good news”

1. RedPencil Says:
   August 14th, 2007 at 4:09 pm

   SpIEgel.

2. gcotharn Says:
   August 14th, 2007 at 4:23 pm

   I’m impressed with this Der Spiegel reporter. Even though he is obviously anti-Bush, far on the left, and a war skeptic: he wrote the truth as he saw it. Commendable. Many American reporters might’ve written far more negative articles.

3. Ymarsakar Says:
   August 14th, 2007 at 5:15 pm

   I expect Spiegel to be setting us up for a fall. I’m waiting for the other shoe to drop.

4. neo-neocon Says:
   August 14th, 2007 at 9:24 pm

   Red Pencil: oops! Haste makes waste. Corrected.

5. shirley Says:
   August 15th, 2007 at 2:12 am

   190 dead in Kurdish Iraq today. 9 US troops dead today. Yes it’s all turning around. Hail the surge! Just six more months is all they ask. Oh yeh, America is going to get behind that. Uh huh, uh huh.

6. shirley Says:
   August 15th, 2007 at 2:17 am

   Is this the political progress? Or should we all wait another six magical months.

   NYTimes today.

   The explosions also came only a few hours after Iraqi leaders met for lunch in advance of a “crisis summit” meeting to discuss how to solve their sectarian divisions and smooth out their knotted government.

   The gathering, like many before it, produced no results. An aide to President Jalal Talabani called the lunch “an icebreaker,” but Adnan Dulaimi, leader of the largest Sunni bloc, said nothing political was discussed.

   “It was only an invitation for lunch,” he said. “We didn’t engage in any negotiations.”

7. shirley Says:
   August 15th, 2007 at 2:20 am

   To find the kind of contorted thinking that goes on here one usually has to go to a Creationism conference.

8. Lee Says:
   August 15th, 2007 at 4:55 am

   You sure you’re not Nancy Boyda, “shirley”?

   Contorted thinking, moi? Never been to Daily Kos, have you: “Shut up, sergeant! we’re not here to listen to the truth, we’re here to support the troops!”

9. elvis Says:
   August 15th, 2007 at 5:41 am

   Neo is normally so dismissive of the msm; except when some note of agreement with her pro war ideas can be found.

   “By July 31, 3,659 American soldiers had died in Iraq war; but none died on the day of my meeting with Petraeus. Early that evening, he walks around his desk, bends over a computer screen, scans graphs and columns of numbers, and says, “Still no casualties. It’s good news, outstanding news, we don’t get that a lot here”

   Such optimism, if you want to support the troops get them out of this mess.

10. Lee Says:
    August 15th, 2007 at 6:42 am

    Or….

    Perhaps you could try saying “good job” and “thank you”.

11. Trimegistus Says:
    August 15th, 2007 at 7:08 am

    Okay, “Shirley,” what do you suggest we do? Abandon Iraq to chaos and murder? Hand its people over to the tender mercies of Iran and Al-Qaeda?

    If war isn’t the answer here, let’s hear yours.

12. Grimmy Says:
    August 15th, 2007 at 7:57 am

    Mr. Douglas asked that this be passed around. It offers some perspective into changes over the years.
    http://burkeanreflections.blogspot.com/2007/08/civilian-casualties-and-us-conduct-in.html

    Those of you better in historical detail can check the article but all in all, it does show some of the deep changes that’ve occurred over the decades.

13. Danny Lemieux Says:
    August 15th, 2007 at 9:13 am

    Uh, shirley, those civilians were killed by the bad guys, likely Al Qaeda. Us going away and hiding under our beds would not change that, nor would it change the fact that those bad guys want to destroy us (in their own words). You and elvis have your own distorted thinking to sort through.

14. serendip Says:
    August 15th, 2007 at 12:17 pm

    Help: Someone is criticizing neocons on another blog. If you know the definition and are well-veresed in the topic, please go over to. (read the post and then the comments). Thanks.

    http://kamangir.net/2007/08/13/godfather-seeks-support-from-the-islamic-republic/

15. Tom Grey - Liberty Dad Says:
    August 15th, 2007 at 12:17 pm

    Hey Shirley, are you comparing Iraq political progress, in a new democracy, with US political progress on, earmark reform for instance, after 200+ years of democracy?
    Or maybe immigration reform?
    Or health care?

    Or maybe Bush haters have the TV Hollywood schedule idea that 90 minutes should be about enough time to fix any problem.

    On the Der Spiegel article, he often wrote that the Americans were the Iraqi enemies. I don’t think that’s ever been true — we were always the terrorist enemies, and have been the enemies of Baathists who fought against us. Since many of these are Iraqis, we were the enemies of anti-freedom Iraqis.
    Most Iraqis want to avoid becoming a target, I think.

16. Lee Says:
    August 15th, 2007 at 5:39 pm

    No, really.
    Terrorists in Iraq.

17. Ymarsakar Says:
    August 15th, 2007 at 7:33 pm

    Neo is normally so dismissive of the msm

    Not as dismissive as I am of the main sewer mind.

    # shirley Says:
    August 15th, 2007 at 2:20 am

    To find the kind of contorted thinking that goes on here one usually has to go to a Creationism conference.
    

    Try reading stormfront once in awhile.

    shirley Says:
    August 15th, 2007 at 2:12 am

    190 dead in Kurdish Iraq today.

    See, what did I say about the other shoe dropping?

18. Trimegistus Says:
    August 16th, 2007 at 8:49 pm

    Shirley? Must be one heck of a plan if it’s taken you a whole day to write it up. We’re all waiting!

19. Lee Says:
    August 16th, 2007 at 10:42 pm

    I predict we’ll see snow in hell before we hear from “shirley”(a.k.a. Nancy Boyda) again.

20. Ymarsakar Says:
    August 19th, 2007 at 1:49 pm

    The reason why my reaction to Spiegel’s… article is so nonplus is because of their history. Described here.

    Link

    This all stems from last week’s Der SPIEGEL magazine cover feature article by Ullrich Fichtner: An enormous, fascinating and remarkably honest report on the complex situation in Iraq. (The first link above in bolded-italics leads to the English translation of that report.) SPIEGEL ONLINE is also publishing Fichtner’s report that US troops are in a remarkably good mood and have high morale. That also flies directly in the face of past SPIEGEL reporting that consistently depicted US troops as demoralized, depressed, defeated, prone to suicide and suffering from low morale.

    As a long-time observer of the publication, my first reaction to reading this on SPIEGEL ONLINE was: Are they on drugs?! - this directly contradicts everything they’ve reported for the past four years! My second reaction was: Have they finally gotten off the drugs?! Maybe reality is finally starting to sink in!

    Keep in mind that less than a year ago, Der SPIEGEL published a magazine cover (depicted below) declaring Iraq a “Lost War”.

    I always must watch out for enemy propaganda operations designed to upset US or international morale. One method is to raise expectations and then gut us while we’re looking up.

21. Der Spiegel: Changing Propaganda Lines? « Sake White Says:
    August 19th, 2007 at 2:00 pm

    […] Der Spiegel: Changing Propaganda Lines? Filed under: Unconventional Warfare — ymarsakar @ 3:00 pm This Spiegel article came up awhile ago. Neo-Neocon weighs in. […]

22. Der Spiegel: Positive Developments in Iraq? « The New Centrist Says:
    August 21st, 2007 at 8:09 am

    […] [Hat tip to Neo-Neocon] […]

Leave a Reply