'Being Slimed in the Green Zone'

I love Christopher's articles. He does his best to find out what's really going on in Iraq, he writes well, he's knowledgeable about the various Mid-East countries he writes about, he's knowledgeable about the various Mid-East religions and lastly he's there.

He could however do with a good proof reader as you will see.

It's very difficult to get accurate information out of Iraq. Spin is the order of the day, and it's even more difficult when the U.S. military does it in the Green Zone. I've seen my share of that. Once, I asked an American trainer about the makeup of the Iraqi Army unit he was working with. How many Shi'ites, Kurds, Sunnis? "Oh, we're about half Shi'ite and half Sunni," he said. "It's a great example of the two sects working together." I found this hard to believe, as this was a unit in Baghdad and it was about a year before the Sunni tribes had turned on Al Qaeda in Iraq and started joining the security forces. No Kurds? "Well, you know Kurds are mainly Sunnis," he replied. What rubbish. He knew the message of the day was Sunni and Shi'ite sittin' in a tree, f-i-g-h-t-i-n-g al Qaeda together, and he was determined to get it out, even if he had to push Kurds' Sunni-ness on me. (Kurds are probably the most secular of all Iraqis, and their ethnic identity is what defines them to other Iraqis, not their religion.)

...

On recent codel* (Congressional Delegation), Rep. Ellen O. Tauscher, D-Calif., and Rep. James P. Moran Jr., D-Va., both witnessed their bios -- complete with their harsh anti-war language highlighted -- distributed to military officials they were meeting with. The bios seem to split the visiting Congress members into "for us" and "agin' us" types, with Moran's most inflammatory anti-war comments highlighted, and Tauscher's voting record distorted to make it look like she voted against the troops. "This is beyond parsing," Tauscher said. "This is being slimed in the Green Zone."

*I just love how the military and military contractors find it necessary to always talk in acronyms.

Via Christopher.