What Positive Reports?

My latest article over at OpinionEditorials.com - What Positive Reports?

The media has demonstrated that it is one sided in its reporting. This has been obvious since President Bush took office in 2001. There have been reports and more reports that prove the biased reporting of television and print media. The public has had enough and a new campaign against bias in the media has started.

But… it is not conservatives that are up in arms about the bias in reporting. Shockingly it is one of the most liberal organizations planning protests about the media. United for Peace and Justice, led by avowed Socialist Leslie Cagan has teamed up with Media Channel.org to focus on “media complicity in the Iraq war.” According to press releases and articles spanning the left side of the Internet, UFPJ “is broadening its anti-war protest to include targeting a US media system that has largely substituted jingoism for journalism and backed the war – often in the name of supporting the troops.” Imagine that – the liberals believe that the reporting of the Iraq war has been too positive.

I have written several articles highlighting the media’s complete failure to report on the positives in Iraq. The Associated Press leadership was crawled on the carpet back in August 2005 by newspaper editors about the one-sided reporting from Iraq. Blogs overflow with news from Iraq that never gets mentioned in the media. Even soldiers serving in Iraq have commented publicly about the negativity in the media. So having an anti-American organization complain about too much positive news from Iraq is ridiculous and obscene.

I researched the Associated Press articles in January and February 2006 and contrasted the reports with the facts from the Department of Defense and the soldiers. There were literally no reports of any positives in Iraq from the AP. There were plenty of articles citing the death and destruction in Iraq. The AP even has a daily article that reports on the deaths in Iraq. If you only read reports from the AP, you would envision an Iraq that was in utter turmoil, with bombs and IEDs exploding on every corner and carnage flowing down every street in Iraq. While things are certainly not rosy in Iraq, there is a great deal of positive news and accomplishments thanks to our soldiers. Here’s a few of the positives that occurred in Iraq during the first two months of 2006. (All information is available on the Iraq Reconstruction section of the War on Terror pages of the Department of Defense website) See if you have read any of these in the print media or viewed a news report about these events…

The GDP in Iraq grew by 2.6 percent in 2005.

The first class of cadets for the new Iraqi army graduated from the Iraqi Military Academy Al Rustamiyah under the year long Sandhurst-modeled curriculum on Jan. 19.

The Al Basrah Oil Terminal had been protected by coalition forces since operations in Iraq began in 2003 but the Iraqi Navy’s marine unit took over protecting the platform on Feb. 7.

The Iraqi Navy consists of two squadrons – a patrol boat squadron and an assault boat squadron. The patrol boat squadron uses Predator class patrol boats to conduct 24-hour security operations and sector patrols around the oil terminals and in Iraqi territorial waters. The assault boat squadron has 24 fast assault boats that routinely patrol the inland waters and approaches of the Kwar Abd Allah up to the port of Umm Qasr, which is Iraq’s largest and only deep water port.

In the Al Muhawil muhallah a new water treatment plant opened on Feb. 6. One million cubic liters of water will pump through the Al Muhawil station on a daily basis. A similar project on the other side of town in 2006 will bring clean drinking water to more than 20,000 residents for the first time in many years.

About 250 reconstruction contracts worth more than $250 million have been awarded to women-owned businesses in Iraq over the past eight months.

As of Jan. 30, there were approximately 6,000 actual projects started with a program value of $2.5 billion. Currently there are 2,200 projects ongoing with a program value of $3.2 billion. About 3,700 projects have been completed with a program value of approximately $2.5 billion.

Iraqi firms are doing the majority of the work in Iraq including school renovations, health clinics and hospitals, border forts, police and fire stations, public buildings, water treatment units and plants, water supply facilities, sewer networks and more.

The Baqubah General Hospital renovations are complete. The hospital has a new incinerator and reverse osmosis water treatment system, plumbing and sewer system upgrade, architectural renovation, emergency backup generator and repair of existing elevators. The hospital is a 331 bed hospital with surgery and consultation clinics that see 400-500 patients daily.

The Northwest Regional Control Center is under construction in Northern Iraq. The NRCC is a $4.9 million system developed to improve the reliability of the country-wide automatic monitoring and control system for the National Electric Network.There are 434 electricity (generation, transmission, distribution and monitoring and control) projects planned in Iraq. 132 power related projects are ongoing and 123 have been completed.

On January 29, 2006 the Iraqi Air Force made history when it flew its first C-130 flight with an all Iraqi crew outside of Iraq.

The Iraqi Army’s 5th Brigade, 6th Division, assumed control of a base in central Baghdad from the US 4th Infantry Division’s 4th Brigade Combat Team on January 31, 2006.

More than 15 new well projects have been completed in villages within the Ninawa Province. These wells provide pure drinking water for more than 12,600 Iraqis. The water these wells deliver does not require additional treatment.

The Kovak Primary School in the Dahuk District was completed in January 2006. The 12-classroom school was built from the ground up. It will house 36 teachers and about 825 students.

Tal Afar’s police department opened the new Al Salam Police Station in January. The new police station building features a holding cell, an arms room, investigation and intelligence cells, an interrogation room and an information desk. Currently 180 Iraqi Police Officers are assigned to the station with an additional 60 officers scheduled to be added.

A water pipe system was completed in small communities southeast of Baghdad. The system brings water to families that have never had running water in their villages, much less in their homes.

Baquba Maternity Hospital in Mosul is open and delivering babies. The facility houses 229 beds and serves a local population of approximately 350,000.

More Iraqis have access to sewage collection and treatment now than in 2003. More than 4.5 million people have access to a standard level of service. In 2003, less than one million Iraqis had access to sewage collection.

Thirty-five government sites in Baghdad, the Central Bank of Iraq and two state-owned banks are now connected via the Wireless Broadband Network.

So how many did you already know about? Probably less than 5 would be my guess.

The media does demonstrate a bias in their reporting, especially the war in Iraq coverage. The focus of the coverage is on the negative, not positive as claimed by UFPJ. The media has been derelict in its duty to report the whole story to the public. The Media Day of War Coverage scheduled for March 20 is simply another attempt to twist the truth to justify the Liberals incessant complaints. The far left has used everything but the kitchen sink in an attempt to discredit the Bush Administration. This bogus complaint about media being slanted toward the positive is another sign of Liberals’ complete disconnect with reality and the truth.