Last week while much of the American public was gossiping about Paris Hilton’s latest release from prison and Lindsay Lohan’s continued downward spiral, America sat completely ignorant of an Iraqi village’s slaughter by the hand of Al Queda (Warning: Link contains graphic and disturbing imagery). This ignorance is completely inexcusable. Did this get even the slightest bit of major media coverage? No. Should it have? Absolutely. We’re all up in arms over the massacre’s in other parts of the world but are completely ignorant of others–especially those in a region that has been in the forefront of everyone’s mind since 2003. Why aren’t we? Because either the news media doesn’t know about it or (in my cynical opinion) they don’t want to publish anything that might sway the public towards staying in Iraq until the job is done. It’s no secret that the majority of the media is against Iraq and is willing to push forward with their agenda to get us out of there at any cost, even that of creating deliberately misleading headlines and extremely poorly constructed stories. This whole situation could be remedied with more honest journalists in Iraq and a media with a desire to report the truth. Things really aren’t as bad over there as we all think. They aren’t great, but they aren’t awful either. So where does one go when one wants to stay informed?

We are forced to rely upon amazing independent journalists like Michael Yon (author of the linked article above) to give us the no-bull assessment of what is going on over there. Michael is currently embedded with Coalition forces in Iraq. Why is this guy special you may ask? For one, his embeds last several months, much longer than the week or less that most journalists call an “embed.” For two, he is a former member of the U.S. Army’s Special Forces whose experience lends itself to unique military and tactical insights in his reporting. He gets to know the uniquenesses of each battle-space and the men involved, which means that he isn’t blinded by the fluff–calling it like it is (Link to a February 2005 post) long before any other media outlet is willing to say the same thing. Michael believes in the Iraqi people and our mission there.

I’m no pro-war “lookie what we can do with our bombs” junkie, though like Michael, I believe in the Iraqi people and their future. I believe that they have the ability, the heart, the desire, and the right to become a great nation once again.