By Staff
On Dec. 6, the much awaited report from the vaunted Iraq Study Group hit the streets, repeating what the leaks have already been saying – the situation in Iraq is grave and deteriorating.
While the 79-item report did not recommend an immediate or short-term pullout, it certainly pushes for a significant change in direction – a plan USA Today referred to as "cut and stay."
This assessment wasn't very surprising. Considering the daily horror stories coming out of the Middle East, it's also not surprising the report matches much of the popular sentiment – the mission to liberate Iraq is crumbling, our efforts are failing in the face of rising resistance, the country is descending into civil war.
This is what we see on our end of the press train coming out of Iraq. And frankly, without directly putting ourselves in danger, as well as dropping a large sum of money, the average American has no other source of news from Middle East's emerging democracy.
The Iraq Study Group, however, did have that opportunity, and they made use of it.
This august group, which included inside-the-Beltway stars like former Secretary of State James Baker, 17-term congressman and 9/11 Commission Vice Chairman Lee Hamilton, former Attorney General Ed Meese and retired Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O'Connor, trekked over to Baghdad to gain an accurate perspective of the situation on the ground.
During the obligatory press conference following the release of their report, former CNN correspondent Jonathan Carl asked probably the most poignant question of the day.
"I understand you went to Iraq once," Carl said, addressing the Blue Ribbon committee.
"None of you made it out of the Green Zone. Why should [President Bush] give your recommendations any more weight than what he's hearing from his commanders on the ground in Iraq?"
Carl's question was met with a moment of silence as the committee members came up with a reason why they didn't poke their heads out of the tent to see what was actually going on.
Carl did recognize Chuck Robb, the former senator from Virginia, as the lone member who did take a look around, but I would expect any man who would marry the daughter of a seated president to be brave enough to tour Iraq.
So there we have it. We have a report drawn from the best indirect evidence available, all the while getting a daily deluge of death and carnage from the alleged battlefield. And why not?
As our circulation manager Andrew Heasley likes to say, blood and mayhem sell newspapers.
What we don't hear much in the news is how the members of the military feel about the progress that has or has not been made.
I hear occasional nugget from acquaintances or family members who have served over there, but I have never received a regular flow of news from Iraq.
So, what we need is the unfiltered news from the men and women who are actually fighting the war and building the peace.
We want to hear the stories of the progress as it is seen through the eyes of our troops, and we want to hear of their hardships in their own words.
Therefore, we invite anyone who has family members serving in Iraq to send us the letters or the e-mails telling of what life is really like.
And we want the news to be genuine and complete, warts and all.
The big media outlets frankly are not interested in reporting if a new bridge has been built, or if a new school has opened, but we are.
We print articles like that nearly every day, and now we want to print those stories from anyone who wants to be our correspondent in Iraq.
E-mails may be sent to my address listed below, and letters can be mailed to 217 N. Fourth St., Niles, MI, 49120.
We hope to hear some real news soon.