The News or The Truth?

Hard to tell which is which.

Newsday has the following article, which was supplemented by wire reports:

"British pullout in Iraq leaves Basra in chaos"

Yet today I get an e-mail from Michael Yon:

Greetings,

A new dispatch is published: Under Distant Stars.

I've just spent 10 days on the Iran-Iraq border with an excellent British "Battle Group" called 4 Rifles. We truly were living under the desert stars.

I am currently in Basra. There are reports that Basra is in chaos.

These reports are false. Basra is mostly peaceful; the British have not lost a soldier in combat for more than a month, and Iraqi-on-Iraqi violence has plummeted in the last six weeks or so.
The British have NOT pulled out of Iraq or Basra yet, but from what I can see, their force reduction decisions are militarily and politically sound, and are supported by top American commanders in Baghdad. The news reports I am seeing about Basra are incomplete at best, and largely inaccurate.

(Reminds me of Mosul during 2005.)

V/r,

Michael

I can't tell you how disturbing it is to me to think that news from the war is not accurate. Is there really an effort by some in the media to portray everything in a negative light? I wonder.