A Soldier's Perspective

Page One News?

Not on your life. USA Today would rather suppress good news as far back as possible. Page 15A to be exact. Instead, USA Today decides to put a story titled "General: Air fleet wearing down" on the front page (above the fold) in an effort to further spread their message of defeat. Even our Air Force is falling apart!! Most people will read the headline and make up their minds without reading that the story actually only refers to two planes: the A-10 Thunderbolt and the U-2 Spy Plane. Not one mention that the two planes referenced were created in 1955 (the U-2) and 1972 (the A-10). Don't get me wrong, increased operational tempo means increased stress on equipment, but they don't really make the attempt to educate their readers that their article refers ONLY to the two OLDEST planes in the fleet. In a related story sure to come out soon, older cars require more maintenance than newer ones; old computers require more maintenance; and older men require more maintenance. Notice the trend? This isn't news.

As for the good news…

Relegated back to page 15 is an article I think is equally, if not more, important than a story about old planes being…old. The title of the article is "Iraqi general touts area turnaround"!! WHAT?! PROGRESS!! SUCCESS?!

Yassir Layth, 12, whose favorite sports are soccer and "push-ups," used to pedal his bike past human corpses each day on his way to school.

Today, the two-block path from his home to Nablus Primary School is not nearly as scary, he said. The shooting has stopped, car bombs have quieted and, most noticeably, the dead bodies have gone away.

"My friends were too scared to come to class, and so was I," Yassir said inside his classroom, crowded with other students. "Now everyone comes to school."

The school is in the mainly Sunni neighborhood of Yarmouk, which the Iraqi military showcased Monday as a sign the nearly 3-month-old Baghdad security plan is working. Yarmouk used to be one of the city's worst battlegrounds for sectarian violence, but a flood of Iraqi troops into the area has made things better, Iraqi Brig. Gen. Qassim Atta al-Mousawi said.

How could this be? What could possibly reverse the dangerous trend so prevalent in the country? Iraq is spiraling out of control and the only answer is to pull us out immediately, right?

The situation drastically improved since the start of the security plan, Azid said. The classrooms began to refill with students as the shootings and explosions stopped, she said.

Just to ensure that not too much good news begins convincing people we're doing good, the paper made sure to embed a "U.S. death toll" block smack dab in the middle of the article and printed it side by side with another article titled "2 suicide bombing in Ramadi kill 13". Heaven forbid.