By Juan Cole

Bush made a surprise visit to Al-Anbar Province on Monday, as part of his propaganda drive to get Americans to think we should stay in Iraq because “progress” is being made.

The debate over al-Anbar province is driven by the Bushies’ desire to find any ‘good news’ to grasp at. Indeed, from 2003 forward, their criterion for objective reporting on Iraq was that it gave the ‘good news.’ When there obviously wasn’t any good news, they started ignoring Iraq, as at Fox [Republican TV] Cable News.

Now the ‘good news’ appears (I swear to God) to be that you can “walk” in Iraq. That’s the good news. The 8 billion people in the world walk every day, in most of the world’s locales. Now it is an achievement to walk. That’s good news of the highest order. Only, if you are American in Fallujah you might need a company of Marines with you so that you can . . . walk. (See below).

Is al-Anbar Province really paradise, as Bush suggested?

Read more at Informed Comment