Top Ten Myths about Iraq in 2005 (Juan Cole)

[laststeamtrain]

Top Ten Myths about Iraq in 2005

Iraq has unfortunately become a football in the rough and ready, two-party American political arena, generating large numbers of sound bites and so much spin you could clothe all of China in the resulting threads.

Here are what I think are the top ten myths about Iraq, that one sees in print or on television in the United States.

1. The guerrilla war is being waged only in four provinces. This canard is trotted out by everyone from think tank flacks to US generals, and it is shameful. Iraq has 18 provinces, but some of them are lightly populated. The most populous province is Baghdad, which has some 6 million residents, or nearly one-fourth of the entire population of the country. It also contains the capital. It is one of the four being mentioned!. Another of the four, Ninevah province, has a population of some 1.8 million and contains Mosul, a city of over a million and the country's third largest!...
http://www.juancole.com/2005/12/top-ten-myths-about-iraq-in-2005-iraq.html

[ChairmanAgnostic]

1. a surprising, informative and interesting article. R&K

a must read.

[babylonsister]

2. Someone needs to send this to dimson and rummy. nt

[laststeamtrain]

3. From August 22nd: Ten Things Congress Could Demand from Bush on Iraq

1) US ground troops should be withdrawn ASAP from urban areas as a first step. Iraqi police will just have to do the policing. We are no good at it. If local militias take over, that is the Iraqi government's problem. The prime minister will have to either compromise with the militia leaders or send in other Iraqi militias to take them on. Who runs Iraqi cities can no longer be a primary concern of the US military. Our troops are warriors, not traffic cops.

2) In the second phase of withdrawal, most US ground troops would steadily be brought out of Iraq....

http://www.juancole.com/2005/08/ten-things-congress-could-demand-from.html

[Alpharetta]

4. Stat needed: what are Iraq's current oil production levels?

Sorry if this is inappropriate to this thread, but I was hopeful a DUer more knowledgable on Iraq current events could point me to a reliable organization which tracks Iraqi oil production and export levels.

[laststeamtrain]

6. This might help: link

http://www.nationmaster.com/country/iz/Energy

[ovidsen]

5. Very good read! n/t

[Maestro]

7. Good info

K & R

[Douglas Carpenter]

8. excellent article -- balanced