Did you know? Positive news from Iraq is obliterated by negative coverage

Good news is worth knowing: Did you know? I didn't know. How could we?

Did you know that 47 countries have re-established their embassies in Iraq?

Did you know that the Iraqi government currently employs 1.2 million Iraqi people?

Did you know that 3,100 schools have been renovated, 364 schools are under rehabilitation, 263 new schools are now under construction and 38 new schools have been completed in Iraq?

Did you know that Iraq's higher educational structure consists of 20 universities, six institutes or colleges and four research centers, all currently operating?

Did you know that 25 Iraq students departed for the United States in January 2005 for the re-established Fulbright program?

Did you know that the Iraqi Navy is operational? They have five 100-foot patrol craft, 34 smaller vessels and a naval infantry regiment.

Did you know that Iraq's Air Force consists of three operational squadrons, which includes nine reconnaissance and three US C-130 transport aircraft (under Iraqi operational control) which operate day and night, and will soon add 16 UH-1 helicopters and four Bell Jet Rangers?

Did you know that Iraq has a counter-terrorist unit and a Commando Battalion?

Did you know that the Iraqi Police Service has over 55,000 fully trained and equipped police officers?

Did you know that there are five Police Academies in Iraq that produce over 3,500 new officers every eight weeks?

Did you know there are more than 1,100 building projects going on in Iraq? They include 364 schools, 67 public clinics, 15 hospitals, 83 railroad stations, 22 oil facilities, 93 water facilities and 69 electrical facilities.

Did you know that 96 percent of Iraqi children under the age of 5 have received the first two series of polio vaccinations?

Did you know that 4.3 million Iraqi children were enrolled in primary school by mid-October?

Did you know that Iraq has an independent media that consists of 75 radio stations, 180 newspapers and 10 television stations?

Did you know that the Baghdad Stock Exchange opened in June 2004?

Did you know that two candidates in the Iraqi presidential election had a televised debate recently?

Of course we didn't know!

Why didn't we know? Because ... our media wouldn't tell us. Instead of reflecting our love for our country, we get photos of flag-burning incidents at Abu Ghraib and people throwing snowballs at the presidential motorcades.

Tragically, the lack of accentuating the positive in Iraq serves two purposes:

It is intended to undermine the world's perception of the United States, thus minimizing consequent support. And it is intended to discourage American citizens.

The above facts are verifiable on the Department of Defense Web site.

-- E-mail from a friend

For another interesting perspective on media coverage of the Iraq War, check son Jon Rust's column in the semissourian.com blog section.

n

It's always good to receive a note such as the following. I share it not because of the personal compliment, but rather because of the message.

Lasting impression: Hi, Gary.

I stopped in my tracks very suddenly today ... and I thought of you. I haven't thought about you in many years, though your impact on me is felt by each and every life I come into contact with every day.

You see, I was a college freshman at SEMO in 1975. I had walked into the new Student Center, bought a cheap meal in the cafeteria and found a quiet corner. Though the place was nearly empty, you approached me and asked if you could join me at my table. You then spent the next half-hour or so asking about me and why I was attending [SEMO] and so on. When I inquired about you, you responded that you worked for a local publisher.

We parted ways, you wishing me success, me grateful that a stranger would take time to converse with a lonely kid down from St. Louis.

Our paths crossed a few times on campus as well as the annual thrashing you gave me playing pingpong at the annual MS dance marathon, as well as a thrashing or two I experienced from your daughter Penny on the tennis court. I belonged Alpha Kappa Psi when it was actually a fraternity.

The lesson I have carried with me to this day is, no matter how great my success in life, take time to know people I meet, and listen, exclude no one, for each has a gift to offer as well as a gift to be received.

May God's blessings be with you and your family... and thank you for the gift, I'll cherish it always.

-- J.B.H.

n

Wendy and I spent a week in Cuba about six years ago. Its status is a shame for the friendly Cubans under the Communist regime of Fidel Castro (and now his brother Raul).

49 years of Fidel: After nearly 50 years in power, ailing communist dictator Fidel Castro passed the torch recently, announcing that he wouldn't accept another term as "president" of Cuba when the national assembly meets. Hope, like Fidel, springs eternal, but there can be no mistaking that this news has many believing his reign is finally over. The end of Fidel isn't a sufficient condition for Cuban freedom, but it is a necessary one.

When an intestinal illness required surgery in July 2006, the dictator ceded "temporary" power to his second in command, younger brother Raul. That alone was monumental for Fidel. ...

Fidel's legacy includes ruthless oppression, but less widely appreciated is that he was also an economic incompetent. In January 1959, Cuba had the third highest per-capita GDP in Latin America. Today the island is a malnourished backwater where staples like milk, sugar and eggs are rationed, sever shortages exist in the medical system and electricity is a luxury. Formerly a dependent of the Soviet Union, Cuba now begs at the feet of Venezuela, which gives it as much as $2 billion in aid annually.

Raul ... can be as brutal as his brother. But for practical reasons Raul is expected to attempt to move the country toward a more competitive economic system, on the China model, something he has supported in the past. ...

Raul may be betting that all this would somehow soften the U.S. View of Cuban repression and provide an impetus to lift the U.S. embargo. In fact, Cuba is already able to buy as much food and medicine as it wants from the U.S. What Raul wants are American tourists, financing from U.S. banks and World Bank aid. All of that requires Washington's blessing. He shouldn't hold his breath. Florida, and its exile community, remains pivotal in a U.S. election year.

This page has long supported lifting the embargo, but American politics will not allow that until Cuba itself changes. That is another of Fidel's many tragic legacies.

-- The Wall Street Journal

Gary Rust is chairman of Rust Communications.