Winds of change

The last few days I’ve been noticing a theme. Call it shifting winds or turning tide, but it seems like people are noticing a change in the way the subject of Iraq is being reported since the elections.

I first noticed it at Captain’s Quarters:

The blogosphere has long resigned itself to the lack of coverage given by the Exempt Media to positive developments in Iraq. While we have read about increasing enthusiasm for voting on the milblogs and some of the secondary professional media outlets, the market leaders such as the New York Times, the Los Angeles Times, and the Washington Post have almost exclusively focused on body counts and bombings while ignoring everything else. When the Gray Lady sees fit to start reporting that even the Sunni of Saddam's hometown have committed themselves to democracy in the upcoming elections, it might indicate that defeatism has finally jumped the shark

And now this morning Small Dead Animals points to a journalist embed with the 172 Styker Brigade who says:

Think about everything you’ve heard about the conditions in Iraq, the role of U.S. forces, the multi-layered complexities of the war.

Then think again.

I’m a journalist. I read the news everyday, from several sources. I have the luxury of reading stuff newspapers don’t always have room to print. I read every tidbit I could on Iraq and the war before coming.

Everything I thought I knew was wrong.

And even the BBC is starting to see the sun shine in Iraq:

Men and woman came, many carrying small children, and in the street outside the school they formed silhouettes, in swirls of dust on a warm autumn day in Baghdad.

One voter said: "This is stability, at last".

Another, with tears in his eyes, told me: "This is the beginning of a new Iraq. I am so happy."

Well I say let the sun finally shine.  The truth can't be hidden forever and maybe these are signs of an awakening.  Hopefully the people of the world will in fact take notice so they can join the Iraqis in rejoicing.

...Leslie