Iraq: Good News is No News

Here’s my latest highly abbreviated form of the Iraq Index, published and updated twice a week by Michael O'Hanlon of the Brookings Institution:

Americans Killed in Action, Iraq (monthly average)

2003: 32
2004: 59
2005: 56
2006: 45
April: 61

Americans Killed in Action, Vietnam (weekly average)

1965:* 30
1966: 97
1967: 177
1968: 263
____
• = First U.S. combat troops arrived in Vietnam, 5.3.65
Vietnam table compiled by Galen Fox using Defense Department sources.

Note please—the Vietnam KIAs are weekly, not monthly, averages.

Crude Oil Production (m. bbls./day)

Prewar: 2.50
Goal: 2.50
actual: 2.14 (4/06)

Electricity (megawatts)

Prewar: 3,958
Goal: 6,000
actual: 3,600 (4/06)

Iraq finally has a duly elected prime minister, Nouri al-Maliki. This is big news, even though al-Maliki has yet to name his cabinet. Certainly the failure to select a prime minister during the four previous months constituted bad news, and overlay all other bad news coming out of the country. With al-Maliki's taking office, Iraq can truly start to function as a democracy—big news and good news.

NBC failed to give al-Maliki a headline the night the story broke (April 21), and the following night made Parliament’s formal approval of al-Maliki only its fourth headline of four. Partly because al-Maliki received so little coverage, Bush sent Rice and Rumsfeld to Iraq April 26 to meet with him and highlight Iraq’s good news yet again. It didn’t work. NBC responded to the Rice-Rumsfeld visit with even less coverage: a 23-second item read by Brian Williams. The network provided no correspondent, no direct feed from Baghdad, certainly no headline.

Political progress in Iraq, however, did attract Zarquari's attention. As usual, he responded with increased violence against American forces. So it’s no surprise that the total number of American troops killed in action in April rose sharply to 61 from its March low of 25. Still, the monthly average for 2006 remains below the two previous years' monthly average.