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Knight Ridder nails it yet again
Maybe it's location but the lack of media exposure of the Knight Ridder Washington D.C. reporting crew is mystifying. This is certainly so when looking at the impressive reporting by Warren Strobel, Jonathan Landay, Hannah Allam, Joe Galloway, Tom Lasseter, Nancy Youssef and others.
The New York Times and The Washington Post staffers certainly deserve many of the kudos (and some of the brickbats) they have received but it appears there is some sort of monopoly by these two newspapers vis-a-vis the various television shows covering politics and national/international affairs.
Ask yourself? When is the last time you have seen a Knight Ridder reporter on television?
The Knight Ridders proved to be much more tough questioners towards Bush Administration claims prior to the war. Throughout the conflict, there has been no hesitation by KR to distribute accurate information, whether or not it jived with government claims.
They do it again in the following:
Predictions of a better Middle East have evaporated three years after invasionTo read the rest, go here.
By Warren P. Strobel and Hannah Allam
Knight Ridder Newspapers
May 16, 2006
WASHINGTON - Three years after the United States invaded Iraq in pursuit of a freer, more stable Middle East, the country's deepening ethnic conflict is spreading tension across Iraq's borders, fueling terrorism and nurturing gloom about the future.
President Bush cited Saddam Hussein's weapons of mass destruction and ties to international terrorism - neither of which turned out to exist - when he ordered a pre-emptive war that began March 19, 2003. He predicted payoffs for the wider Middle East: spreading democracy, deterred enemies, more secure oil flows, a less hostile environment for Israel.
None of that has happened, at least not yet.
Instead, said officials and analysts in the United States, Arab countries, Israel and Europe, the invasion has produced a vortex of unintended consequences.
Militancy is on the rise. Terrorists are using Iraq as a training base and potential launch pad for attacks elsewhere, according to U.S. officials and documents. Democratic reform remains largely stymied.
The U.S. Army and Marine Corps, and especially the Reserves and National Guard, are feeling the strain of repeated deployments. Public support for the war is declining in America and almost nonexistent elsewhere. The war has cost more than 2,300 American lives, and the Congressional Budget Office estimates that its total financial cost may exceed $500 billion.
"The region is pushed further toward extremism," said Mohamed el Sayed Said, the deputy director of the Cairo-based Ahram Center for Political and Strategic Studies. "The Bush administration was warned that it's moving into an area of shifting sand. ... This is a very complex region with legacies of sectarian violence and religious strife."
In Jordan to the west, Saudi Arabia to the south and Turkey to the north - even in Israel - U.S. allies are voicing growing concern that Iraq's chaos could seep across their borders and infect them.
The president has said the Middle East was anything but stable before the invasion. Success in Iraq will leave the region better off and America safer, Bush said Monday in the first of three speeches to mark the anniversary.
"By helping Iraqis build a democracy, we will inspire reformers across the Middle East. And by helping Iraqis build a democracy, we'll bring hope to a troubled region, and this will make America more secure in the long term," he said.
Yet, so far at least, the reality in the Middle East is much different:
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