The Bobcat Nation

Anyone else noticing the lack of news, real news, that comes out of Iraq. I mean we hear second and third hand that either we are building lots of schools or we are undermanned and under-armoured, but we don't actually see much on the news to substantiate either claim. Does it not befuddle anyone that we have all this great technology, yet can't get something deeper than, "Oh, we're building lots of schools and infrastructure." What is, "lots?"

How big is Baghdah? Is it the size of N. Orleans? If so, how does it stack up with New Orleans in terms of schools needed to educate those childern? Can anyone explain what is necessary and how close we are to meeting that number?

The CIA World Factbook has a good overall rundown of Iraq.

The population of Baghdad is estimated in the range of 5.8 million to 26 million, though most are in the 5-7 million inhabitant range.

As to reasons for the lack of news out of Iraq, I personally think it is like the lack of news out of Afghanistan. When things are going well, there's no news. When the insurgents kill Americans or innocents, well, that'll make the front page of the NY Times.

Most of the news out of Iraq that I've found has come from the blogosphere. A number of good blogs have popped up about Iraq, some of which actually are written by Iraqis.

Here are my favorites:
Michael Yon
Iraq the Model - Side note: a number of Iraqi-authored blogs are on Omar's blogroll.
Chrenkoff

Hard to report the news elsewhere in Baghdad from the Green Zone. I don't think reporters get out much anymore. Also - how would CNN report on what's happening in Aruba if their journalists were in Iraq?

I know a journalist who has gone undercover in Iraq 2-3 times since the invasion. The last time, tour was way too risky and the news corp canceled the rest of the tour...attempted assault, and that was with a well-place interpreter.

Anyway - I agree that news is slim. Reminds me of that line in Boyz n the Hood? "Either they don't know, don't show, or don't care 'bout what's going on in the hood."

That's a fitting quote.

The reporting we get often is not put into proper perspective. (ie: is a $27 million water works system for a city of 70,000 a cost effective project? Was it constructed well? Who did the work?) I'd be interested he seeing a report on a project that breaks it down a bit further than just saying "we spent this on this." The major networks are failing, so we're forced to go to these left or right wing news(?) sources and use our best judgment on what's what. Yet we know every detail about Schiavo, Aruba, Olivia Newton-John's runaway beau.