As I mentioned the other day, Rich Miller is reporting in Iraq currently. His reporting isn’t the big picture stories of the nightly news, but personal reporting of the daily lives of Iraqis and how the invasion and occupation affect them and then putting that into context of the larger context. While such reporting doesn’t get the cliched ‘whole story’, for those that have spent time in the Developing World, it is critical to understanding day to day life and how US actions are affecting the country. Both stories are quite moving. (hmmmm….far too nice–have to find something in Miller’s work to criticize soon)
Postwar Iraq Moves Dangerously Close to Civil Disaster
Disappearing? Iraqis
UP DATE: I received a complaint that Miller’s articles aren’t balanced and that a better article would be Max Boot’s.
First, I don’t think that all articles should be balanced–in fact, given that no single story catches the full picture, a well written story captures an important element of the story. I think those of us in the US need to hear very personal stories that tell of the problems. They are ultimately anecdotes and I expect intelligent readers to understand this. But more importantly, the Boot article has the same problem–Boot spent his time with US Soldiers giving him a skewed view–meaning neither should be taken as a single point of truth. There are two reasons to point out the Miller articles–one is that they are by a local journalist, and two, because Americans have a hard time imagining what life is like if you are an Iraqi right now. I think those articles capture some of the situations Iraqis are going through.
Taken together, I think the Boot and Miller articles provide a couple key points. First, civilian control is where we need to head. Abizaid’s report specifies this. Second, the tactics being used may be problematic at times–as noted in Miller’s piece, but also mentioned in Boot’s with the discussion of regular army unit tactics in keeping control.
Second, I think Boot is missing a key point. Him and the amorphous media reports he criticizes are wrong about this being analagous to Vietnam. This is an occupation of country with no sovereign not a limited war against insurgents in a country with a functioning government. We are the sovereign and producing civil order should have been the top priority–and while we need to move torwards civilian rule, we first have to establish civil order and then support it. It seems hard to argue that we didn’t and still don’t need more troops. First, to produce civil order and then to rotate them in and out. Those can be American or UN troops, but they have to create a climate of order. We didn’t do that at first, because our troops were busy finishing off the Iraqi army. More troops would have reduced this problem. More troops would reduce this problem now. But now we are prolonging the issues because we didn’t get it right at first.
ArchPundit