I want you guys to ask yourselves a question...how would you compare iraq two years ago vs iraq today? Think about that for a minute, and think about why you think the way you do in that respect; e.g. how did you get the information that made you think that way? who did it come from? what motive or general message do your source(s) want to portray about modern politics?
Now After considering that, read below.
Heres an email that BenJeremy on the xbox forums ran across and posted, its a very interesting read:
> Someone should present what the press, in dereliction of
> their responsibility to the public, refuses to mention. In this case,
> what we don't hear CAN hurt us, as a nation. The press is fond of
> starting sentences with "Since President Bush delared an end to
> major combat on May 1st ..." but then they go off on an litany of
> bad news. But why don't we hear about the following...
>
>
> SINCE PRESIDENT BUSH DECLARED AN END TO MAJOR
> COMBAT ON MAY 1...
>
>
> - the first battalion of the new Iraqi Army has graduated and is on
> active duty.
>
> - over 60,000 Iraqis now provide security to their fellow citizens.
>
> - nearly all of Iraq's 400 courts are functioning.
>
> - the Iraqi judiciary is fully independent.
>
> - on October 6, power generation hit 4,518 megawatts-exceeding
> the prewar average.
>
> - all 22 universities and 43 technical institutes and colleges are open,
> as are nearly all primary and secondary schools.
>
> - by October 1, Coalition forces had rehabbed over 1,500 schools - 500
> more than their target.
>
> - teachers earn from 12 to 25 times their former salaries.
>
> - 240 hospitals and more than 1,200 clinics are open.
>
> - doctors' salaries are at least eight times what they were under Saddam.
>
> - pharmaceutical distribution has gone from essentially nothing to 700
> tons in May to a current total of 12,000 tons.
>
>
> SINCE PRESIDENT BUSH DECLARED AN END TO MAJOR
> COMBAT ON MAY 1...
>
>
> - the Coalition has helped administer over 22 million vaccination doses
> to Iraq's children.
>
> - a Coalition program has cleared over 14,000 kilometers of Iraq's
> 27,000 kilometers of weed-choked canals. They now irrigate tens of
> thousands of farms. This project has created jobs for more than 100,000
> Iraqi men and women.
>
> - we have restored over three-quarters of prewar telephone services and
> over two-thirds of the potable water production.
>
> - the wheels of commerce are turning. From bicycles to satellite dishes
> to cars and trucks, businesses are coming to life in all major cities and
> towns.
>
> - 95 percent of all prewar bank customers have service and first-time
> customers are opening accounts daily.
>
> - Iraqi banks are making loans to finance businesses.
>
> - the central bank is fully independent.
>
> - Iraq has one of the worlds most growth-oriented investment and banking
> laws.
>
> - Iraq has a single, unified currency for the first time in 15 years.
>
>
> SINCE PRESIDENT BUSH DECLARED AN END TO MAJOR
> COMBAT ON MAY 1...
>
>
> - satellite dishes are legal and you can buy them on what
> seems like every street corner..
>
> - foreign journalists aren't on 10-day visas paying mandatory and
> extortionate fees to the Ministry of Information for "minders" and
> other government spies.
>
> - there is no Ministry of Information.
>
> - there are more than 170 newspapers.
>
> - a nation that had not one single element---legislative, judicial or
> executive-- of a representative government, does.
>
> - in Baghdad alone residents have selected 88 advisory councils.
> Baghdad's first democratic transfer of power in 35 years happened when
> the city council elected its new chairman.
>
> - Iraq chambers of commerce, business, school and professional
> organizations are electing their leaders all over the country.
>
> - 25 ministers, selected by the most representative governing body in
> Iraq's history, run the day-to-day business of government.
>
> - the Iraqi government regularly participates in international events.
> Since July the Iraqi government has been represented in over two
> dozen international meetings, including those of the UN General
> Assembly, the Arab League, the World Bank and IMF and, today, the
> Islamic Conference Summit. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs today
> announced that it is reopening over 30 Iraqi embassies around the
> world.
>
> - Shia religious festivals that were all but banned, aren't. For the first
> time in 35 years, in Karbala thousands of Shiites celebrate the pilgrimag
> of the 12th Imam.
>
> - the Coalition has completed over 13,000 reconstruction projects, large
> and small, as part of a strategic plan for the reconstruction of Iraq.
>
> - Uday and Queasy are dead - and no longer feeding innocent Iraqis
> to zoo lions, raping the young daughters of local leaders to force
> cooperation, torturing Iraq's soccer players for losing games...
> murdering critics.
>
> - children aren't imprisoned or murdered when their parents disagree
> with the government.
>
>
> SINCE PRESIDENT BUSH DECLARED AN END TO MAJOR
> COMBAT ON MAY 1...
>
>
> - political opponents aren't imprisoned, tortured, executed, maimed,
> or are forced to watch their families die for disagreeing with Saddam.
>
> - millions of long-suffering Iraqis no longer live in perpetual terror.
>
> - Saudis will hold municipal elections.
>
> - Qatar is reforming education to give more choices to parents.
>
> - Jordan is accelerating market economic reforms.
>
> - the Nobel Peace Prize was awarded for the first time to an Iranian --
> a Muslim woman who speaks out with courage for human rights, for
> democracy and for peace.
>
>
> SINCE PRESIDENT BUSH DECLARED AN END TO MAJOR
> COMBAT ON MAY 1...
>
>
> - he has not faltered or failed.
>
> - Saddam and almost all of his henchmen are either dead or captured.
>
> - Iraq is free.
>
>
> None of this information has been published by a Press Corps that
> prides itself on bring you all the news that's important.
>
> Iraq under US led control has come farther in 6 months than
> Germany did in 7 years or Japan did in 9 years following WW II. Military
> deaths from fanatic Nazis, Japanese and their supporters numbered
> in the thousands and lasted for over 3.5 years after victory was declared.
>
> It took the US over 4 months to clear away the twin tower debris,
> let alone attempt to build something else in its place.
>
> Think for a moment! If everyone in the City of New York went on a
> rampage and looted every store, museum, office building, hospital
> and home...stole everything that had any value at all such as light
> fixtures, water pipes, power lines, telephone cords, copper tubing
wherever
> it was found, and damaged or destroyed everything it was connected to,
> how long would it take for non-English speaking Asian soldiers to repair
> everything back to order and how much cooperation do think they would get?
>
> How much would it cost?
>
> Now add in the fact that they are also responsible for accidentally
killing
> some
> of your relatives during their attempt to help you.
>
> Take in to account that they are helping to create a new form of
government
> that no one is used to and that changes the way you have been raised your
> entire life.
>
> Take in to account that the other English speaking countries of the world
> are
> against the new government that is being established.
>
> Take into account that almost every Democratic leader in the House and
> Senate
> has fought President Bush on just about every aspect of his handling of
the
> Iraq
> war and the effort towards reconstruction, and continues to claim what a
> failure
> this conflict has been.
>
> Taking everything into consideration, even the unfortunate loss of our
sons
> and
> daughters in this conflict, do you think that any other entity in the
world
> could or
> would have accomplished as much as the Bush Administration and the United
> States in so short a period of time?"
>
> Funny too...Bush "had NO PLAN for post-war Iraq!
>
>
>