Who Ya Gonna Trust, Hmmm?

When you're talking about politics these days, things almost inevitably turn to Iraq.

You know they do.



I don't know which side of the debate you stand on, and don't particularly care.



But I do know that when I take information about the situation overseas, there are some sources I'm more inclined to trust than others.



Military bloggers on the ground in Iraq, over reporters in New York, for example. Better yet, IRAQI bloggers in Iraq, who are UNQUESTIONABLY better sources of a good picture of the situation than the New York Times.



Here is a perfect example of this phenomenon, although not exactly similar to the examples I've used above:



According to the World Peace Herald,  WE'RE LOSING OUR ASSES OMGWTF!!1!



According to documents found during the raid that resulted in Abu Musab al-Zarqawi's death, documents written by the terrorists themselves, WE'RE KICKING THEIR ASSES IF WE JUST STICK IT OUT OMGWTF!!1!



I'm more inclined to believe the terrorists' own opinions of how our operations and troops are affecting them than the opinions of someone calling themselves the "World Peace Herald," whose agenda is implicit in their name. They'd like us to go home, even if it results in the terrorists taking over in Iraq, because THEY are native to the area, and therefore THEIR violence is perfectly ok, where ours is evil. Their troops are ok; ours are wrong. Theirs behead innocent civilians on live television; ours arrest and imprison criminals before a trial.



Oh, how wrong of us.



I'd really rather take my image of what's happening in Iraq from those who would know; sadly, not very many apparently agree with me.



But I will just say this. We are completely fucked if we honestly believe that people who are not in Iraq, have not been to Iraq, and know nothing about Iraq are more qualified to judge the effectiveness of our operations in Iraq than those who are in Iraq; in fact, those who are the very enemies our operations are designed to suppress. Being as I am an eternal optimist, I would like to hope we're not yet that isolated from reality.



Believe me, it is possible to think that Bush is the worst President in this country's history without disagreeing with the war in Iraq. We are winning, slowly but surely; we owe it to the people of Iraq, upon whom we inflicted Saddam Hussein in the first place, to finish what we started. After all, we put him there; it was always our mistake to clean up.