US CPA Efforts Labeled "Incompetent"

Rod Nordland published an article today for Newseek under the title "Freedom's Reign". The article was little more than a second rate hatchet job comprised of regurgitated bashing of the United States endeavor in Iraq. It's clear that everyone has an opinion on the question of whether or not we should have invaded Iraq, and it's also clear that Mr. Nordland is of the opinion that we had no business liberating Iraqis from Saddam Hussein. I respect his opinion, but I take exception to his tactics of trashing every aspect of the US efforts in Iraq and his use of Michael Moore type distortions to try to make his point.

Mr. Nordland is hosting a "Live Talk" tonight with the purposes of discussing how best to transfer sovereignty to the new Iraqi government. Interestingly enough, Nordland's article makes no attempt to address the "how", it simply offers a hatchet-job on the "who". What follows is a letter from USANow to Rod Nordland:

Mr. Nordland, I recently read your article and have several questions for you. You are hosting a Live Talk today on how best to transfer sovereignty, yet your article offers absolutely nothing on this topic. You simply engaged in the same recurrent American-loathing propoganda endorsed by the radical left and packaged it as new material. Given the claims you've made in your article, I'm left to wonder if you are qualified to host this Live Talk event.

Do you understand that securing a country the size of Iraq is a daunting task? Do you understand that Iraq is now teeming with Syrian and Iranian insurgents? Yet you use the fact that US forces continue to face resistance as evidence that the Coalition Provisional Authority is "incompetent".

Given your background in journalism, I would hope that even you would admit that you don't know the first thing about securing a nation. Yet you presume to know that current troop levels are sufficient, and the military is therefore failing because pipelines have been attacked. There is ample evidence that Iraqi unemployment is as low as it's been in years, yet you decry "double digit" employment. Teachers and doctors are receiving salaries unheard of in the former regime, yet you claim that "Materially, most Iraqis were better off under Saddam". The evidence I have seen contradicts your claim, so I'd be curious to learn of your sources. And finally, you close your slanderous tirade by labeling the CPA as "amateur nation-builders". Given the rarity of such circumstances, do you really believe that there is such a thing as a professional nation builder? How ironic that the author of an irresponsible propoganda piece has the nerve to label the coalition "incompetent". Unfortunately, I'd bet only the likes of Michael Moore are tickled by this type of irony.

This morning, the world witnessed the ceremonial flag raising outside the Iraqi embassy in the United States. Rend Al-Rahim, Iraq's representative to the United States, was very hopeful about the future, stating that the new democratic system promises to give all Iraqis the opportunity to participate in the political process and to voice their concern. Perhaps her comments were diametrically opposed to your article because, unlike you, she isn't trying to push a political agenda.