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Originally Posted by Airbornelawyer
With all due respect to the reporter and Allawi, who are right that the mainstream media, "well armed with Democratic talking points," seems to be deliberately trying to spin the reporting on Iraq, this statement is false ("rosy" perhaps?):
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Allawi said, "I have noticed -- and the [Western] media have ... neglected and omitted several times ... Iraq is made out of 18 provinces. Out of these 18 provinces, 14 to 15 are completely safe, there are no problems."
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None of Iraq's 18 governorates is "completely safe." Quite a few have no major problems, but it does not amount to 14-15. |
OK, based on analysis by me and the blogger The Belmont Club, I will revise this to say that while none are completely safe, 10 provinces qualify as relatively safe and four others qualify as not the worst places to be, so 14-15 isn't too far from the mark.
Relatively safe: Dahuk, Dhi Qar, Irbil, Karbala, Maysan (Missan), Muthanna, Najaf, Qadisiyah, Sulaymaniyah and Wasit.
"Not the worst": Babil, Basrah, Diyala and Tamim.
Fairly violent: Baghdad and and Ninevah.
Insurgent hotbeds: Al-Anbar and Salahuddin.
A fuller exposition is here:
http://www.socnetcentral.com/vb/show...922#post472922
So while PM Allawi's view might be a little rosier than reality, reality is closer to his view than that of the quagmire-mongering media doomsayers in the article Gypsy cited.