Margaret Wente on Iraq

Margaret Wente on the current situation in Iraq:

As for the situation in Iraq, I have a hunch it’s going better than the daily dose of woe dished up by the media might lead us to believe. According to the media, Iraq is Vietnam, with an all-out guerrilla war, a hostile local population, anarchy in the streets, and American troops who are ready to frag the brass.

But hey, the media’s job is to report what went wrong yesterday. Bad news is good, and good news isn’t news. Anything that shows imperialist America screwing up is good. Anything that vindicates imperialist America isn’t newsworthy.

[ . . . ]

Don’t get me wrong. Iraq will be a three-Excedrin headache for a long time to come. Maybe it will all blow up. But please allow me a tiny scrap of optimism. It could be going a whole lot worse. And it’s probably going a whole lot better than you’d think if you watched the news.