The Face of Iraqi Democracy (The liberal Slimes always thinks it knows best)

The New York Times ^ | 09/24/2004 | New York Times Editorial Board

[GAGOPSWEEPTOVICTORY]

Iraq's appointed leader, Ayad Allawi, put on an impressive performance yesterday in Washington. Addressing Congress and then holding a joint news conference with President Bush, he thanked America in the name of the Iraqi people for overthrowing Saddam Hussein. Challenging the news reports that Americans get daily, Mr. Allawi claimed that security is improving, economic reconstruction is progressing and democratic institutions are taking root. It was everything the Bush re-election campaign could have asked for. Unfortunately, most of it was wrong.

Until Iraq holds free elections, Mr. Allawi cannot claim to speak for more than the narrow coalition of exile parties that maneuvered his appointment as interim prime minister. Increasingly well-organized and deadly attacks are directed against American troops, foreign relief workers and Iraqi security recruits. Sunni towns like Falluja and Mosul and Shiite areas, including much of Baghdad, are gripped by insurgencies that American military analysts believe are nowhere near being overcome. Oil pipelines are attacked regularly, electricity supplies remain erratic, and foul drinking water breeds disease.

With the United Nations expressing doubts over whether Iraq will be secure enough to hold elections by January, American commanders are planning to launch an all-out offensive shortly after the November presidential elections here. They hope to secure enough Iraqi territory to permit a presentably nationwide vote. Meanwhile, the main exile-rooted parties behind Mr. Allawi seem intent on suppressing all real political competition.

Mr. Allawi spent most of the past quarter-century in exile. He got his start in politics as an enforcer for Saddam Hussein, but broke with the Baathists and was nearly murdered by Mr. Hussein's agents. He built a political base around a core of disaffected ex-Baathist officers - and gained the backing of the Central Intelligence Agency, which supported him during the last decade or so of Mr. Hussein's rule. Since he was appointed interim prime minister in June, Mr. Allawi has not tried very hard to remake himself as a democrat. He has armed himself with the power to declare martial law and reinstated the death penalty, and he closed the Baghdad offices of Al Jazeera when it refused to adjust its editorial policies to his liking. His main appeal to Iraqis rests on the notion that he may be the only politician ruthless enough to hold the fragmenting country together.

The image Mr. Allawi was working hard to cultivate yesterday in Washington was very different. He wants to be seen as the firm but low-key leader of an emergent Iraqi democracy. He was occasionally compelling, but ultimately unconvincing, with contradictory messages that things are going well and that airing any evidence that things are not going well provides aid and comfort to terrorists. It's disturbing to see someone who presents himself as the future leader of a democracy begin by expressing doubts about the value of a free press and refusing to accept the importance of an honest and realistic discussion of what's happening in his country.

[GAGOPSWEEPTOVICTORY]

Wow... Apparently these losers on the Slimes Editorial Board know better about what is going on in Iraq from their building in Times Square in MANHATTAN than the prime minister of Iraq who actually SEES what's going on in his country EVERY FREAKING DAY!!!

It's nice to know that the Slimes is still in bed with the sKerry campaign, spreading their doom and gloom.

This is coming from the paper that called an operational pause in the war itself a quagmire.

This is the same paper that has opposed President Bush at every possible turn.

This is the same paper that misused its front page for countless days on end over Abu Gharib.

This is the same paper that would rather attack the credibility of the swift boat vets than address their well researched book about sKerry on the merits.

The Slimes is the dinosaur of the old guard of the liberal left wing media. Hopefully, as CBS goes, so will their corrupt friends at the DNC ... errr... the Times.

[goldstategop]

I guess the New York Times can't stand good news. After all the only thing that will help Kerrry is bad news. Good news wouldn't benefit their Golden Boy TM or the Democratic Party politically. Its amazing.

[tkathy]

The NYT and the old media in general are rapidly becoming part of the problem, and in no way contributing to any solution.

[GAGOPSWEEPTOVICTORY]

I'm having a very difficult time trying to figure out the last Presidental candidate that actually won on an anti-war, the U.S. is losing message. (Could you even argue Nixon? I wasn't quite born yet to know.)

Americans are optimists by nature. Pessimism and doom and gloom doesn't go over very well except to Kerry's liberal base that would have the government in our every day business if it were up to them.

Those candidates who do spout doom and gloom messages usually go down to a resounding defeat.

[endthematrix]

Ah, a nice tag line: Bad news is good news for the Kerry campaign!

[Ed_in_NJ]

The NYTEB with its head up its rectum -- what else is new?

[WebTalk]

Who would have expected anything else from the NYTimes?

They too will end up on the trashheap of journalism.

I was thinking that someone should publish "The Daily Blogosphere Report" as the definitive critique of the "news".

I admit, I only just now thought of this.

[xtinct]

Pessimistic bitchasspunks on the New York Times like ALL liberals are rooting for Iraq to fail???

[GopherGOPer]

I think its amazingly brass of them to say "unfortunally most of it was wrong."

How the heck would they know. They're a bunch of monkeys in an office pretending to be around the globe, using other interoffice feeds to make up the news. Jayson Blair anybody?

For anyone to have a glimmer of credibility of an opinion on the situation in Iraq, it would help if they actually had a team of their own reporters, stationed with the Iraqi government-note to the NYT stationed with the terrorists does NOT count. It seems instead they rely on bogus AP docs, and from pics of ambushes we can tell who the AP is stationed with.

Then from an outside perspective they further the claims that the Prime Minister, who undoubtably gets much more info on one daily briefing of his nation, than the NYT prints facts in a year. I'm sure the NYT had the perspective to say the Prime Minister was wrong. NOT.

[geedee]

Have you noticed when the Slimes offers a really, really, really slanted article that it's never written by one person? Someone who can be held accountable for their vile lies? It's always this "Editorial Board" BS. Typical liberal, cowards to the end.

[GopherGOPer]

Dang it, should have done one more preview.

Meant to say that they believe they can challenge the claims. Actually I was going to say they "further the Forgery campaign's claims that the Prime Minister... is wrong about his own country"

When I went on to explain the bit about how the Prime Minister gets more info from one daily briefing than the NYT prints actual facts in a year I forgot to add the last part about the NYT claims.

[southernbuck]

Well gee whiz..........

He tried to bomb Hussein

He reinstated the death penalty..for terrorists too btw

He boots Al Osama TV out of Iraq

No wonder the libs/terrorists hate him...he MIGHT just create the first democracy in the middle east, AND box in Iran with democratic countries.

What a dangerous guy

[AmericanChef]

I think the Slimes main message is that their Brothers, Al Jazeera, have been given the boot.

These New York Girlie Men think that a country suffocated by an evil regime for 30+ years can become a model of happy, civilized democracy overnight, not even considering it's the Middle East to begin with.

Much as I disagree with their opinions, I have to think they're just not very bright.

[geedee]

No wonder the libs/terrorists hate him...he MIGHT just create the first democracy in the middle east, AND box in Iran with democratic countries.

You're dead on! I don't know your age but us grumpy old men need to remember back a few years . . . to 1967 through 1973 or so. The tactics the libbers are using now aren't new tactics. They used them during the Vietnam War as well . . . but there's a big difference now. We didn't have the internet. We didn't have an unobstructed way of challenging their lies. But, most importantly, southernbuck, we didn't have very many conservative young bucks . . . and young does, LOL . . . who were willing to go to the mat for the conservative and patriotic causes we hold dear to our hearts.

Our warriors won the Vietnam War. The American public who wouldn't demonstrably back their efforts lost the Vietnam War. And it's an important distinction that the younger conservatives must understand so they will NEVER AGAIN allow our national interests be hijacked by liberals.

Walter Cronkite and, yes, Dan Rather, and the rest of the panty-waist MSM'ers fed a gullible public a constant stream of "woe-is-me" BS and those of us who knew it was BS had no way of debunking their propaganda. We were held captives because there were no conservative news outlets . . . NONE, NOT ONE, NOWHERE.

Cronkite was never, ever "the most trusted American" in my household. I was only sixteen during the Tet Offensive . . . 1-31-1968 . . . but even then I was a political junkie. I hung on every word uttered by Walter Cronkite, Chet Huntley, David Brinkley, et al and like the rest of the nation I was horrified by the graphic violence shown during the TET Offensive. This, at least in my memory, was the first "Virtual War." Some FReepers older than me might disagree but I don't remember anything before TET being so graphic or reported so quickly.

But I had one thing available to me that most other Americans didn't . . . thank God for them. I had an uncle fighting his ass off in the middle of TET and he was able to let us know not to believe ANYTHING WE HEARD ON TV OR READ IN THE NEWSPAPERS.

I tried sharing his reports with others by word-of-mouth reports at school and anywhere else I could speak . . . but no one believed me. TV was still a "relatively" new phenomenon in 1968 and if Uncle Walter said TET would be our downfall then it had to be true. It just had to be true.

Southernbuck, I'm guessing you're relatively young . . . based on when you joined FR. If I'm wrong, please forgive me but if I'm not wrong . . . if you're say 40-ish or younger . . . please, please pay attention to everything that's going on around us. You and the generation right behind you are the new Minutemen and Minutewomen. History will write that you and those Americans just now reaching adulthood were the ones who chartered America's course in the new millennium.

Overly dramatic, you say? Not a bit.

The Dan Rathers, the John Kerrys, the Howard Deans, the Barbra Streisands, and the rest of the socialist liberals want a homogenous world where we're all governed by elitist know-it-alls and where personal liberties are but a long-ago memory. You're on the front lines of this war, southernbuck. You're the newest Paul Revere. Warn your generation. Warn the generation following you. Shout if you have to. Conservatism has a strong foothold right now but we're just one simple slip away from being drowned by our enemies . . . both foreign and domestic.

[jerod]

Could you even argue Nixon? I wasn't quite born yet to know.

Nixon won 49 states and 60.67% of the vote in 1972. That was the same year that Kerry and Fonda were screaming their anti-war crap at anybody who would listen. Luckily, nobody did. LOL

[Zellenn]

Whoa! You just really NAILED it. I was 22 in 1968--but I didn't have a relative fighting in Vietnam to keep me informed of the TRUTH and all I knew was that a lot of guys my age were fighting and dying in a war that I was constantly being told was unnecessary and wrong! I hated the war--but only because it was killing the men fighting it. When I saw Vietnam vets turn against the war, that did it for me. I figured if they thought it was wrong, it had to be!

Now I know that what I was being told was nothing but lies, and for me it's VERY personal with Kerry--and the media. They lied--to ME--now they're trying to doing it again!

But, THANK GOD there are people like you and others here on FreeRepublic who know the truth and are committed to the VITAL necessity of getting it out! God Bless you!

[Beckwith]

Usually, we get the opinion of a single writer.

This piece of crap was written (constructed) by a committee.

Can't you just picture the lefties at The New York Times Editorial Board sitting around the conference room asking "how are we going to spin this?"

[geedee]

But, THANK GOD there are people like you and others here on FreeRepublic who know the truth and are committed to the VITAL necessity of getting it out! God Bless you!

Thank you. Unluckily . . . or luckily depending on your perspective . . . I must confess that I still have a vested interest in the current war. My beloved nephew is fighting in Iraq and I know firsthand how what Kerry says makes the lives of our soldiers that much tougher. We must fight just as hard on the homefront as our warriors are fighting on the foreign-front.

Ahem . . . please forgive my one tiny Vanity . . .

I just found out five minutes ago . . .

MY NEPHEW WILL DEFINITELY BE HOME FOR CHRISTMAS!!!!!!

Okay, I'll shut up now. I wish EVERY FReeper could see the celebrating going on in my house now. I'm surrounded by family and friends who always gather here when we expect an email from my nephew.

Can't write through my tears. Bye y'all.

[shrinkermd]

Yes, you are very right. The problem is the whole page of the NYT today is defeatist--Herbert, Krugman and Feldman all take this position in one way or another. Also the MSM, including the female reporter from Fox in Iraq, all describe a worsening situation and woe is us sort of philosophy.

Someone from the Bush Campaign has to take action. First, they must point out progress made. Then it is down and dirty with labeling of the gloom-casters as actually "cut and run." We evolved in small groups in a hunting and gathering society where group cohesion, courage and hanging together were crucial. Tapping into this will seal Skerry's fate, but it must be done. Letting the conventional wisdom (CW}) become we already have lost is a catastrophe. Most people parroting CW have not the slightest idea of any inductive logical basis for the CW beliefs.