Mark Seibel - Kudos to a Watchdog

I strongly encourage you to read an article by Mark Seibel published by McClatchey Newspapers titled " Administration Leaving out Important Details on Iraq." (Here is the McClatchey link)

Thank you Mr. Seibel for writing, and McClatchey for publishing, the kind of oversight and information that we the public expect from the press. It is a sad statement that telling a clear truth has become such a rarity that it is noteworthy.

Seibel selects some of the statements from the Bush speech on the troop surge, and other administration officials' reiteration of those statements.

The primary example are is the claims surrounding the "change" that happened with the bombing of the Golden Mosque. Seibel notes:

That version of events helps to justify Bush's "new way forward" in Iraq, in which U.S. forces will largely target Sunni insurgents and leave it to Iraq's U.S.-backed Shiite government to - perhaps - disarm its allies in Shiite militias and death squads.

But the president's account understates by at least 15 months when Shiite death squads began targeting Sunni politicians and clerics. It also ignores the role that Iranian-backed Shiite groups had in death squad activities prior to the Samarra bombing.

Blaming the start of sectarian violence in Iraq on the Golden Dome bombing risks policy errors because it underestimates the depth of sectarian hatred in Iraq and overlooks the conflict's root causes. The Bush account also fails to acknowledge that Iranian-backed Iraqi Shiite groups stoked the conflict.

His analysis is much more detailed than this and he does an excellent job of countering spin with fact.

I am writing him a letter of appreciation. I urge you to read the article and do the same. The only way to change the media's behavior is to let them know when they are wrong, but also let them know when they have done their job well. Mark Seibel, has done a good job. His email address is Mseibel@mcclatchydc.com