Of fish and civil war-mongering

Apparently the civil war in Iraq exists only in the major media. It does not exist in reality. From Ralph Peters’ “Dude, Where's my Civil War?”:

I'M trying. I've been trying all week. The other day, I drove another 30 miles or so on the streets and alleys of Baghdad. I'm looking for the civil war that The New York Times declared. And I just can't find it.

Maybe actually being on the ground in Iraq prevents me from seeing it. Perhaps the view's clearer from Manhattan.[...]

All day - and it was a long day - we drove through Shia and Sunni neighborhoods. Everywhere, the reception was warm. No violence. None.

And no hostility toward our troops. Iraqis went out of their way to tell us we were welcome.

Contrast that with the headlines you’ve read over the last week. It’s one thing to be biased. It’s quite another to be declaring and hoping and praying for civil war, in the hopes that one might feel vindicated. That is, agitating for war in the hope of burnishing of one’s anti-war credentials.

Confused? Me too.

I would be quite curious to do a quick count of citations of the phrase “civil war” that have appeared above the fold in the major pubs over the last 10 days...then, multiply that out by the readership of those publications.

Liberal friends of mine took to the phrase “war-mongering” in the lead-up to the Iraq war. Remember, a monger is one who yells and sells, as in fish from a cart. What, then, have the mainstream media become?

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Update: Welcome Instapundit readers! While you are in the neighborhood please stop by California Conservative.

Comments

[TallDave]

Wait, hold on. There's a Republican left in San Francisco? How did this happen? Does Gavin Newsom know?

[The Gentle Cricket]

I saw this article on California Conservative earlier today and was thankful that word is at least getting out to some people. Though, it's not a surprising tact by the MSM. Last week Gateway Pundit had a great article about falsehoods. Also, though I've lost the link, I saw poll results last week that indicated overwhelming support of our troops by Iraqi's.

[andreww]

Yea, I think there really is more support over in Iraq than the media is portraying. I think that there would be more support here in this country if the media would report both the good with the bad stories of our troops. We never hear the stories of all the great work that our troops are doing. The Iraqi people are seeing it every day and that is why they are supporting this overall mission.