Der Spiegel's Amazing Article on Iraq

[Cavguy]

All,

I caught this reading the SWJ Op-ed update. A week and a half ago my German father in law sent me the article in German - but due to my limited skills I wasn't able to get the full effect. I quite simply is one of the most balanced and accurate portrayals of Iraq today I have read ....

http://www.spiegel.de/international/...499154,00.html

When describing Iraq, the word "peace" is seldom used. Truth be told, the Americans have restored order to many parts of the county. But Iraq remains fractured, and where new schools are built today, bombs could explode tomorrow.

and

Ramadi is an irritating contradiction of almost everything the world thinks it knows about Iraq -- it is proof that the US military is more successful than the world wants to believe. Ramadi demonstrates that large parts of Iraq -- not just Anbar Province, but also many other rural areas along the Tigris and Euphrates Rivers -- are essentially pacified today. This is news the world doesn't hear: Ramadi, long a hotbed of unrest, a city that once formed the southwestern tip of the notorious "Sunni Triangle," is now telling a different story, a story of Americans who came here as liberators, became hated occupiers and are now the protectors of Iraqi reconstruction.

and

Every child in the city knows the story of how, on May 16, 2007, terrorists attempted to stage a massive attack. Using four car bombs, they first blew up two bridges across the Tigris River in the city's northwest. A short time later, three other car bombs exploded in front of the headquarters of the district police. They, too, were packed with explosives, ripping craters into the ground the size of swimming pools. An eighth bomb struck a police station in the southeast. The attackers followed each of the bombings with an assault with rockets, machine guns and Kalashnikovs. It was clear, on that May 15, that the terrorists were intent on scoring a major coup. But they failed, and in doing so they lost their war.

The Iraqi police officers and soldiers, who until then had not been expected to perform well in combat, threw themselves into battle. Even the wounded refused to be carried off the battlefield, continuing to fight as best they could. Heroes were born on that day in May, the kind of heroes that the entire country sorely needs -- not Sunni, not Shiite, not Kurdish or Assyrian or Turkmen heroes, but Iraqi heroes.

Let me just state that this is from the magazine that regularly features anti-US foreign policy covers and has been a scathing critic of the Bush administration. That they would publish something like this - the magazine version in German spans 8 pages - is nothing short of amazing.

[Steve Blair]

Thanks for the link! It's a very interesting piece especially, as you said, considering the source.

[Xenophon]

Pretty amazing. I remember a Der Spiegel article that opened simply with the sentence. "The United States has lost in Iraq," or something to that effect.

[Stan]

More from the German side of the fence. Could it be a compliment ?

Read the following paragraph, and imagine it being written by a member of the mainstream media (emphasis added throughout):

Ramadi is an irritating contradiction of almost everything the world thinks it knows about Iraq -- it is proof that the US military is more successful than the world wants to believe. Ramadi demonstrates that large parts of Iraq -- not just Anbar Province, but also many other rural areas along the Tigris and Euphrates Rivers -- are essentially pacified today. This is news the world doesn't hear: Ramadi, long a hotbed of unrest, a city that once formed the southwestern tip of the notorious "Sunni Triangle," is now telling a different story, a story of Americans who came here as liberators, became hated occupiers and are now the protectors of Iraqi reconstruction.

Shocking, yes? Probably written by The Weekly Standard's Bill Kristol or some other conservative columnist, right?

Well, such is not the case, for this truly amazing article was published by Germany's Der Spiegel Friday, which as Ray Drake pointed out to his readers on Monday, has consistently been a staunch opponent to the Iraq war and George W. Bush.

Much more at the link...

[Cavguy]

More from the German side of the fence. Could it be a compliment ?



Much more at the link...

Stan,

That's actually the same article!

[Stan]

Stan,

That's actually the same article!

Hey Cavguy !
Ummm, kinda sorta. The review performed by Noel Sheppard however provides his own spin to the article. Not only as an American Featured Writer, but a business owner as well.

Amazing.

The reader is strongly encouraged to take the time to review all eight segments of this astounding report that really should be required reading for all American journalists and politicians who still question whether or not the surge is working.

Bravo, Der Spiegel. Bravo!

[Cavguy]

Hey Cavguy !
Ummm, kinda sorta. The review performed by Noel Sheppard however provides his own spin to the article. Not only as an American Featured Writer, but a business owner as well.

Hey, no worries. As I told my (German) wife, when the Germans get positive, it's time for the Polish and French to watch out.

I was rewarded with a well deserved tounge lashing in German. German has to be the best language for getting angry in. Maybe that's partially why Nazis still make good enemies for stories/games/etc.

Still, Spiegel has been a terribly biased critic of all things US/Bush for a few years now, and it's amazing that that would get published. My father in law, as I said, read the article and was suprised himself - basically said "so THAT is what you did in Ramadi this past year!"

That said, Tal Afar was Tal Afar, Ramadi is Ramadi, but the country is a whole lot bigger and more complex than two (or three, or four) cities. At least someone is acknowledging that the US Army, four years later, has actually gotten pretty good at tactical/local COIN.