[Cannoneer No. 4]

The Iraq war is covered mostly by reporters who hole up in Baghdad hotels and send out Iraqi stringers to collect what the reporters deem news, as an article in the April 6, 2006, New York Review of Books described in great detail. The reporters convert these accounts into prose and put them on the wire. Except for that all-powerful "Baghdad" dateline, they might just as well be writing from Podunk.

[Tallguy]

Using Iraqi 'stringers' to do the legwork in the news gathering business practically guarantees that, over time, the enemy will gain control of the information being feed to us throught the Media. Not that the editors of the major news outlets give a d@mn...

[Chgogal]

Orville, et al. are a pretty pathetic bunch of spoiled, whiny bores. It is a shame we are depending on them for news. I doubt very much that anyone of these losers could report on their grandmother's funeral. The hearse would probably intimidate them.

Orville, ask the dummies to count the number of trucks leaving and entering Iran, Jordan, Kuwait and Syria. While they are at it, count the number of commercial flights in and out of Iraq and track to see if the numbers are increasing. Check out the Baghdad stock market while your at it. Check if refugees are returning to Iraq? If so are they finding work? Are religious pilgrimages increasing? Orville, according to the IMF, Iraq's economy has grown by 50% and its GDP is about $90 billion dollars and Iraq has the healthiest economy in the region. The Iraqi dinar is stable and has appreciated against the Kuwait dinar and the Iranian rial. Iraq is now exporting food instead of importing it. Too bad Orville and his fellow left wing losers don't show half the ingenuity of the U.S. Military.

The closing paragraph needs to be critiqued by Allegra.

"It may well be that the besieged American press in Iraq will find that the main story is not about Americans fighting Iraqi insurgents, but Americans standing powerlessly aside in their armed compounds, Green Zone, and military bases, watching as Iraqis kill other Iraqis and the country disintegrates. It would be all too ironic if this were the result of the invasion of March 2003, which was promoted as a critical step in bringing peace to the Middle East."

Allegra, you've been in Iraq for 2.5 years, what say you about Orville's story?