Infinite Monkeys
This might be the new normal level of excitement at your friendly neighborhood anti-war protest if the latest spate of positive news out of Iraq keeps up. (Caption: "[Yawn] Hey, Jessica, that's a great scarf." "Thanks, Louise. Why don't we get out of here and grab some coffee.")
Courtesy of WSJ's Best of the Web.
From the BBC, hardly an Iraq war cheerleader:
Iraq faces a period of economic growth and political progress, according to assessments by the International Monetary Fund and the UN.The IMF sees 7% growth in 2008 and a similar rise next year, and says oil revenues from buoyant exports should be up by 200,000 barrels a day.
The UN envoy to Iraq welcomed dialogue between the Sunni and Shia communities and praised the government's work.
Investors, call your brokers, and get in on the ground floor of the reconstruction! Yes, yes. "Analysts warn" that we need to see rapid progress in the next six to 12 months -- but that's what analysts do. They issue warnings, qualifications, and other such hedge-talk so they don't look foolish months hence. Always easier to be happily surprised than to be wiping egg of your face.
Then we see Reuters, called al-Reuters by some critics, finding it hard to downplay the positive developments in Iraq. Of course, they are a news service -- and it's big news when a U.N. envoy starts making happy noises about the prospects of a free, democratic and reconstructed Iraq.
U.N. envoy Staffan de Mistura said the passing of a key law allowing former members of Saddam Hussein's Baath Party to return to government jobs had changed what had been a pessimistic view of progress in a crucial year for Iraq."At the beginning of the year we were worried ... we were genuinely concerned by the lack of progress on national dialogue," de Mistura told Reuters by telephone.
"Today that has substantially changed. It has changed our mind from being worried or from being pessimistic," he said.
Of course, those statements, too, were couched in prudent warnings that it could all fall apart. But the bottom line is that independent watchdogs, who are on the ground in Iraq, are now beginning to counter the left's meme of endless quagmire and hopeless disaster. In fact, the words of Staffan de Mistura sound like a certain general's testimony to Congress in September. I remember that being on the news.
Will Hillary now upbraid the U.N. envoy, like she did Gen. David Petraeus, for mouthing platitudes about Iraq that require "a willing suspension of disbelief"?
Posted by Dr. Zaius at January 18, 2008 08:16 PM | TrackBack