Editorial: The Cynics Were Right

The cynics were right. If the US fatality rate in Iraq could drop to single digits per month, the Iraq War really wouldn't matter. The cynics prediction is validated by many news outlets. Take NPR's The Diane Rehm Show where host Diane Rehm pretends to give a damn about the world but she's never once devoted a show to Iraq since their March 7th elections and, in fact, for the last two Fridays, she's intentionally failed to include Iraq in the "international news roundup." (See Ava and C.I.'s "Media: Let's Kill Helen!" from last week for more on this topic.)

Iraq suddenly doesn't matter and Diane lets a guest -- from The Wall St. Journal! -- get away with lying that the media had a few faults but they certainly aren't responsible for the illegal war. Not only does Diane not correct him but McClatchy's Roy Gutman laughs out loud at the remark, thinks it's funny. And when confronted on it, he tries to lie his way out of it, claiming he didn't laugh and when it's pointed out that you can hear him on the broadcast, he clams up.

Iraq just doesn't matter.

Today is World Refugee Day and apparently that just doesn't matter. It doesn't matter that the Iraq War created the Middle East's largest refugee crisis since WWII. Last week, the UNHCR issued "2009 Global Trends: Refugees, Asylum-seekers, Returnees, Internally Displaced and Sateless Persons" which found that Afghanistan and Iraq (in that order) are the two largest sources of refugees worldwide. And the US State Dept. issued "Trafficking in Persons Report 2010" which found that Iraqi boys, girls and women are forced into prostitution and that they have no protection in Iraq and efforts to talk about what is going on only leads to them being punished.


Well that's Iraq -- or parts of it. Not the northern part, right? Not the Kurdistan region. No, it is that section as well. But for those wanting information just on the KRG and the region it governms, refer to Human Rights Watch's "They Took Me and Told Me Nothing: Female Genital Mutilation in Iraqi Kurdistan." The 81 page report issued last week documented the widespread practice of female genital mutiliation and how it really boils down to fear of women's sexuality. That's what driving the barbaric procedure.


If all of the above didn't make it clear that Iraq was a failed-state, last week you could also read the Fund for Peace's "Iraq On The Edge: Iraq Report #10 2009 - 2010."

Last week saw attacks on police, attacks on Sahwa, attacks on government representatives as well as pleas for help on the political stalemate from Ayad Allawi.

None of that was judged to be news or of interest to most news outlets.

Diane Rehm has walked away and we can all sing a chorus of "The Old Gray Mare" but the fact is that she's far from alone in walking away.

How does that work anyway? Your government is responsible for the Iraq War and you just stop caring about it because who cares if it's Iraqis suffering the brunt of the damages?

The Iraq War hasn't ended, only the coverage has.