The news not in the news: Baghdad is surrounded...

[Pizza_Mahal]

Once every couple of months, there is a dispatch from Iraq in London's Independent from Patrick Cockburn. The dispatch usually comes from beyond the borders of the capital and beyond the daily headlines of car bombs, political fault-lines, and sectarian violence.

Cockburn's latest dispatch is no exception. As headlines focus on the lifting of a joint U.S.-Iraqi siege of the Baghdad neighborhood of Sadr City, Cockburn writes:

"Baghdad is under siege. Sunni insurgents have cut the roads linking the city to the rest of Iraq. The country is being partitioned as militiamen fight bloody battles for control of towns and villages north and south of the capital."

"As American and British political leaders argue over responsibility for the crisis in Iraq," he continues, "the country has taken another lurch towards disintegration."

Link: http://electroniciraq.net/news/2582.shtml

[Soldier4Christ]

Notice the date of that. It was Nov 1st. Even though there is fighting continuing in Baghdad it is no where near as bad as that article makes it out to be. In fact it is under control enough that Vice President Dick Cheney has made a surprise visit to Baghdad. He was there as of early this morning their time. If Baghdad was surrounded by terrorists (yes terrorists for that is what they are not insurgents) then he would not be able to be there. There are just some people that insist on reporting the news in a much worse situation than actually exists.