McClatchy's Baghdad bureau employs several Iraqi correspondents. They act as reporters, translators, and drivers. Several of them post to McClatchy's blog. Today, one of McClatchy's reporters posted McClatchy's blog and let loose with some remarkable charges.
One thing I like about the internet: people who say dumb things can get corrected. And a few things in the post need correction. Take this statement from McClatchy's anonymous reporter:
The most important thing that both the American and Iraqi governments failed to achieve is security.
Really. Failed to achieve security? Maybe the ingrate McClatchy reporter should look at McClatchy's own web site for some stats. And by the way, nobody has said the violence problems in Iraq are solved. From Bush to Petraeus to officers who give press conferences, everybody says there are still dangers ahead. (Maybe part of the problem is McClatchy reporters don't go to the press conferences - see here and here and here.)
Here's another whopper:
Now, we live in the middle of unannounced civil war.
Maybe McClatchy's reporter has been reading Harry Reid's talking points about Iraq being a civil war. But this claim is so absurd I don't want to waste time on it. There are sectarian tensions in Iraq but what is happening does not come anywhere near to the definition of "civil war." The anonymous reporters should read the Wikipedia entry and educate himself before making any more foolish statements.
(For more on the bogus "civil war" charge, see here and here and here and here).
McClatchy's bloggers usually post anonymously. Maybe it's for safety reasons. But maybe it's because they say dumb things that don't stand up to the facts.
