Iraq. Where an illegal war has brought democracy and freedom.
For Little Saddam (Nouri al-Maliki) maybe.
But for the people?
Not really. And the woman above (screen snap from video at Free Iraq uprising) holds a photo of her husband. She took part in the False Promise Friday protest in Baghdad. The one the US media ignored. They couldn't shut up about Moqtada al-Sadr's 'protest.'
Moqtada, you may remember, announced his protest weeks ago. It was going to be huge. Huge. He was going to turn out his 2.5 million supporters in Baghdad, turn 'em out and turn 'em loose. It would be the protest to end all protests.
But the press ignored all those previous statements, all those prior boasts. Thursday that 'protest' took place. Allegedly 17,000 members of his militia marched through the streets of Sadr City. (Sadr City is a slum in Baghdad.) A functioning press would have asked, "What happened to the big demonstration in downtown Baghdad you swore was coming?"
They didn't ask. They didn't bother.
Reality: Moqtada quickly realized he couldn't turn out the protest he'd boasted of. At which point, he switched to a march by his militia.
The US press -- the same press that ignores actual protests in Iraq -- rushed to insist that "tens of thousands" took part. They got that number by turning observers into participants. The so-called "tens of thousands" (70,000, the AP wanted to insist) were nothing but residents of Sadr City opening their front doors to see what was marching past their homes.
And so a faux protests, a media staged event, proved that when the press wants to, it can cover Iraq. (For more on the press' Moqtada nonsense, see this by C.I.)
And, the next day, when actual protests took place, the same press again demonstrated that they weren't interested in real protests. At least four people were arrested protesting in Baghdad Friday. The Great Iraqi Revolution reported: "THE 4 YOUNG ACTIVISTS WHO WERE ARRESTED TODAY BY QASSIM ATTA AND TAKEN TO A PLACE UNKNOWN - 27.5.2011 - THEIR NAMES ARE: JIHAD JALEEL, ALI ABDUL KHALIQ, MOUAYED AL TAYEB AND AHMED AL BAGHDADI. We pray God to have them released very soon."
The Great Iraqi Revolution reported? Yes. And more and more they are the only outlet you can count on to provide the truth about what's going on in Iraq.
The woman in the screen snap is one of many who have taken to the streets of Baghdad (and around Iraq, in fact) holding photos of their missing loved ones. It's a story the US press has taken no interest in.
They're too busy trying to sell the 'success' of the Iraq War and, to pull off that fable, they have to bleach a lot of reality out of the story.