What's really going on in Iraq?

By Mark Yost
St. Paul Pioneer Press

I know the reporting's bad because I know people in Iraq. A Marine colonel buddy just finished a stint overseeing the power grid. When's the last time you read a story about the progress being made on the power grid?

Or the new desalination plant that just came online, or the school that just opened, or the Iraqi policeman who died doing something heroic?

No, to judge by the dispatches, all the Iraqis do is stand outside markets and government buildings waiting to be blown up.

I also get unfiltered news from Iraq through an e-mail network of military friends who aren't so blinded by their own politics that they can't see the real good we're doing there.

More important, they can see beyond their own navels and see the real good that we're doing to promote peace and prosperity in the world. What makes this all the more ironic is that the people who are fighting and dying want to stay and the people who are merely observers want to cut and run.

I feel for these soldiers in Iraq and Afghanistan because I'm sure they're coming home and noticing the same disconnect that I did when I served. Moreover, stories about their families and others who are here and trying to make a difference largely go unreported.

Ever heard of Soldiers' Angels (www.soldiersangels.homestead.com/index.html) or Operation Minnesota Nice (www.operationminnesotanice.com)? Probably not.

Operation Minnesota Nice collects care packages -- of baby wipes, lip balm, baby powder and other items -- for soldiers serving overseas. Soldiers' Angels does the same thing, mating civilians who maybe don't have a loved one overseas with soldiers who don't have loved ones.

Where's the daily coverage of these groups and others like them? Moreover, where are the stories on nearly every VFW and American Legion hall that's actively supporting the troops? What about their stories?

Instead, we get Monday's front-page story about a secret memo about emerging U.S. plans to withdraw troops next year. Why isn't the focus of the story the fact that 14 of 18 Iraqi provinces are stable and the four that aren't are primarily home to the genocidal gang of thugs who terrorized that country for 30 years?

And reporters wonder why they're despised.

Fortunately, not everyone in the press are liberal losers. A few, like Mark Yost, aren't afraid to tell the truth.