Positive Stories in Iraq

[mrbowler]

Here is a story "not covered by mainstream media"-I had to use those famous words. It's all in the definition of what is "mainstream"

Soldiers Deliver Backpacks and Smiles to Kirkuk Children:
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[whitequeen96]

Great website! HappyNews.com Boy, I really need that these days!

[FUNdamental]

Originally Posted by mrbowler

Here is a story "not covered by mainstream media"-I had to use those famous words. It's all in the definition of what is "mainstream"

Soldiers Deliver Backpacks and Smiles to Kirkuk Children:
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Yet we have this

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[mrbowler]

Originally Posted by FUNdamental

Yet we have this

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Well that's just the mainstream media bias only reporting the negatives I couldn't pass up a opportunity to tell/spin the other side of the aisle arguement. To be fair IMO you have stories of soldiers doing postive things such as the story I posted etc., but when you dig for progress at best it is a mixed bag.

This will provide some cover until September:
White House Gives Iraq Mixed Marks in Report
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On the Flipside you have this:

In testimony before the House Armed Services Committee, senior intelligence officials said there has been no meaningful positive change in Iraq since January, when a starkly pessimistic National Intelligence Estimate warned that even if security improved, violent sectarian divisions threatened to destroy the government.

Thomas Fingar, the deputy director of national intelligence and chief of the National Intelligence Council, which wrote the January estimate, said that assessment did not change. While the government of Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki has made "halting efforts to bridge the divisions and restore commitment to a unified country . . . it has made limited progress on key legislation," such as the oil revenue law and a range of power-sharing measures.

"Communal violence and scant common ground between Shias, Sunnis and Kurds continues to polarize politics," Fingar said yesterday. Even the majority-Shiite bloc that Maliki heads, he said, "does not present a unified front" and has continued to deteriorate in recent months. Meanwhile, the provision of essential services seen as crucial in building support for the government, including electricity and oil production, remains below prewar levels, he said. Some have declined over the past six months.

"The analysis that the community made in January . . . appears to be borne out by events since then," he said. "That assessment focused on the imperative for reducing levels of violence in the country as a prerequisite for beginning to restore confidence among the competing, fractured body politic and the groups in the political system." While the increase in U.S. troops is "having an effect, it has not yet had a sufficient effect on the violence, in my judgment, to move the country to a place that the serious obstacles to reconciliation can be overcome," Fingar said.

"It will be difficult and time-consuming to bridge the political gulf when violence levels are reduced, and they have not yet been reduced significantly," he said, in what he called his "most optimistic projection."

Retired Maj. Gen. John R. Landry, also a member of the intelligence council, said there have been some improvements in the Iraqi army, although much less so with the Iraqi police, who are charged with holding urban areas. But Iraqi security forces remain "ridden with a certain degree of sectarian infiltration" and lack the logistics and support capabilities that would allow them to take over from U.S. forces in most of the country, he said.

[ppack88]

Thank you for the story and the site. It really cheered me up after alot of dismal news that I had been reading on Iraq. Does this site report on other things as well?

Now, I am really appreciative of you sharing the site with us but with reference to the earlier 'dismal news', this is what I stumbled upon today that quite difficult to read

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It talks about how the provision of basic services are starting to deteriorate further with professionals leaving the country, on top of other things. I really hope that such an downward economic spiral can somehow be stopped.

[mrbowler]

Originally Posted by ppack88

Thank you for the story and the site. It really cheered me up after alot of dismal news that I had been reading on Iraq. Does this site report on other things as well?

Yes-it does report on many topics-I enjoy the pet stories

[mrbowler]

Originally Posted by ppack88

Now, I am really appreciative of you sharing the site with us but with reference to the earlier 'dismal news', this is what I stumbled upon today that quite difficult to read

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It talks about how the provision of basic services are starting to deteriorate further with professionals leaving the country, on top of other things. I really hope that such an downward economic spiral can somehow be stopped.

Yes this exodus of people leaving Iraq has been happening for quite some time. You can't blame people who are caught in the middle trying to salvage, save themselves from all the negatives that come with war-countless iraqis have fled to jordan etc., but they are not allowed to work according to a report I saw so they basically live on whatever they have hoping to return or forced to return when they have no choice. This stat from your url was a eye opener

"Around 40% of Iraq's teachers, water engineers, medical staff and other professionals have left the country since 2003"