The NYT reports [1] today on the violence that permeates middle class Iraq:
Three and a half years after the American invasion, the relentless violence that has disfigured much of Iraqi society is hitting young Iraqis in new ways. Young people from five Baghdad neighborhoods say that their lives have shrunk to the size of their bedrooms and that their dreams have been packed away and largely forgotten. Life is lived in moments. It is no longer possible to make plans.
“I can’t go outside, I can’t go to college,” said Noor, sitting in the kitchen waiting for tea to boil. “If I’m killed, it doesn’t even matter because I’m dead right now.”
I’d like to believe that when I don’t hear anything close to the ground in Bagdad, that things are going reasonably well there. But I can’t believe this. Whenever I read a credible-sounding report by someone who actually mingles with Iraqis in Bagdad, I hear about sectarian violence puncuated by large explosions. This has been the case ever since the occupation. Therefore our default position needs to be that no news is bad news [2]. Bad things are happening whereever the sun doesn’t shine.
We need to stop allowing our government to make policy on the assumption that no news is good news. Whenever the government is failing to give us a stream of credible and candid primary source information, we should assume the worse.
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