Someone mentioned impeachment, however, we would have to have a democratic House of Reps' and Cheney would have to be impeached or requested to resign. As bad as W. is Cheney is worse. Makes you wonder if that is why he was chosen, probably not. But both need to be stripped of their office. They have brought this country shame and debt.

Our son a soldier, is in a very violent area of Iraq and I'd like to know where "Bob" is. Maybe I wouldn't worry constantly and pray for his safety every minute of the day!!!!! Americans just DONT know.

I'm all for pro democracy and helping out a fledgling nation to get on its feet, but this is getting ridiculous! When are we going to realize that the current Iraq government cannot run this country at the moment? I also want to find out when the (Non-radical) Islamic world is going to get fed up with all the killing in the name of Allah and finally speak out and take some action.

Excellent post, Ms. Araf; you're a credit to MSNBC, to whatever journalism school you went to, and to your country.And I'm heartened to read all the comments from like-minded readers. (And hey, Lisa, don't rag on Iowa--we're a purplish state with a large number of sensible people.)

There's a very easy way to check whether Bob is actually in Iraq or not--his comment address should come with his ISP address, which can be detected through various websites. It would be very interesting to see if he's in Iraq, and, if he's not, what possessed him to write the message. (The ISP address would come with the exact location of the computer he used, so one could post his ISP address in your next blog post. If he lied, which he almost certainly did, he deserves public humiliation and shame.)

I'm heartened by the number of sensible comments on this blog. Just gotta do one smackdown:

"Must we dwell and linger on the ugly? We all know that war is hell!"
Er, Charlotte? Did you *read* the post? Most of the entire country of Iraq is collapsing. Which area should Ms. Araf be covering that she’s not? Fallujah? Tikrit? The whole point is that there is not *enough* good news. Peter Daou made an excellent point a while ago—and he’s someone who grew up in Lebanon—yes, people survive in a war zone, that’s what they do, but it’s still a WAR ZONE.

“Is it wrong for us to want hope for other nations?” If that hope is not matched to an acknowledgement of the reality of the situation, then yes. Then you’re just deluding yourself.

“I personally don't believe the reporters.” Really. Which reporters don’t you believe? What do you think, Charlotte, they’re all making stuff up?
“I know first hand that we HAVE built schools... restored electricity and much more.” To a certain extent—though the electricity is still a major problem. That’s not the issue. The issue is that the whole constant shootings-and-car-bombings-and-death tend to overshadow, you know, occasionally being able to turn on a light or drink water.

“There weren't 60 bodies... just 7 sweet and inocent little girls in an Amish community.... shot to death for NO reason... not even a religious war! It DOES happen here.”
Really. Re-read the third & fifth paragraphs of Jane’s post. The 7 shooting deaths in one day here in the U.S. were a *major* aberration—that’s why they got nationwide attention (53 more in one day and we’ve hit Iraqi levels). Were there 7 shooting deaths in one place the day after that? Or after that? Has *every single person* you know lost a friend or family member to a violent death?

“ Our culture is very different from where you are. We value THIS life, they value the after life more.” Oh, of course. That’s it. Those silly Iraqis—they just don’t *value life!* Could you be any more ignorant?

“I'm sorry that Iraq is going through such a horrible time, but if the final outcome is democracy and freedom for ALL it will be worth it... even as awful as it may seem now.” Stay with me here. What possible sequence of events--and please be realistic--could lead to "Freedom and Democracy for all" in Iraq? You are aware that the latest proposed version of the Iraqi consitution *severely* restricts womens' rights--correct?

Your lack of knowledge of Iraq, international events, functional governments, and the challenges of forcibly converting a war-torn, religious-strife fueled country into a constitutional democracy is frightening. I award you no points, and may God have mercy on your soul.

Robert, respectfully,How can you explain how one can make a whole? Foleys is responsible for his personnel actions. The present admin is not.

"When was the last time you left Baghdad?" What kind of a stupid question is that? Baghdad's the capital of the Iraq. One out of every six Iraqis lives in Baghdad. The multi-billion-dollar American Embassy compound is being built in Baghdad. Baghdad's centrally located in Iraq, along the primary water supply. If you can't control Baghdad, you can't control Iraq, no matter how many schools you paint in Mosul.

Remember "Shock and Awe"? America should by shocked and awed by what we have done to these people and our brave sons and daughters.

I was in Iraq (not only Baghdad) in August 2003, and almost monthly since then till end 2005. Over time, what traditionally bonds a nation together has vanished, differences rather than similarities being put forward: No more common values - religious or other, no common project or vision for their future, not even a common language. Saddam has been replaced by scores of dictators who rule in total impunity - no matter their position in the food chain - from the local tribe-lord all the way up to Talabani and his minions. Iraqis have come to expect / demand the US solves all of their problems. The only ones who have had something to gain from this ordeal is KBR/Halliburton. Write them a check and get the servicemen out of that hornet's nest.

I think bob is still looking for weapons of mass destruction.

Time to bring the troops home.
But we can't leave the Iraqis hanging.
Obvious solution would be to send the politicians over. That would be the fastest way to end this conflict.

I do not understand why people in Baghdad do not take measure to protect themselves. I think if they arm themselves, it would be a different story. If one is armed then he has a better chance of surviving. Unarmed, he is gone for sure

I think Bagdad Bob is really Bo in Seattle. They have the same grasp of the purpose of a free press!

Uh, yeah...its a war!

Good news, bad news... what does it matter? It's all preception anyway. So a few stories about school supplies makes some people believe that the war is being won, while a few stories about tortured bodies being found makes some people believe the war is going badly. Welcome to entrenched debate with no real end in sight. I would like to think that we could see the truth by asking some basic questions- but even those cause more arguments. Weapons of Mass Destruction, al-Queada links... no one really knows anything do they? There's are just accusations and counter-accusations. Welcome to United States 2006- where the face of what could be true is more important than the truth. We seem to be willing to sell our national soul for this debate, and regardless of what happens in Iraq, Afganistan, Pakistan, the rest of the Middle-East, North Korea, or Europe- we can't get that back.

American Soldier, I'm sorry you were put in harm's way by Bush, but try to understand that Iraq had schools, water, electricity, and basic security before we invaded. The mission over there is to clean up the mess that was created by Bush's invasion. And after three years we're failing because it's getting worse every month and we're still fighting to control the capital. A bunch of feely-good stories about schools getting painted can't change that fact. I'm with the vast majority of Americans (68% now) who think the war was not worth the cost. And if Bush, Cheney, and Rumsfeld had a shred of honor, they would all resign. But they're too busy trying to save their miserable skins by throwing lives and money down the black hole of Iraq.

Are you kidding? This is a war, there are casualties in war. The narcissism of the media is unbelievable. If anyone is twisting the situation in Iraq, its reporters. Talk to some troops, there version is likely different from the utter dismay displayed by the media.

In Iraq-Nam these days, we seem to have indigenous Iraq-Cong plus other fighters (Iran-Cong) sponsored by a dictator-run country just to the North. There is even a long history of failed democratization/ colonization by other foreign devils from the West. The only difference with Viet-Nam is that they now happily kill each other as well as us, today's hated foreign devils.
Never forget- Democratization of somebody else's country can be so much Fun... No planning is necessary, its cheap, popular and so pleasing to the touch, feel and taste of the old folks back home.

Can a helicopter land on the US embassy?
We have experience in doing that.
What ever the final number is, we wasted AMERICAN lives for SOB muslins. The civil war will be about the "brother".

Hey, trust me ... this insurgency is in it's last throes!! In another decade or two, they're see there is no way they can overcome the imposing of our will upon them!

God go with you Jane.

A lot of normal people worry. We worry about Iraq. We worry about the Iraqis. We worry about the stress being put on our 18 and 19 yo soldiers, in a foreign land, foreign language, foreign culture and religion that is foreign to most of them; being asked to do a undefined or counter-defined job of Killing The Enemy (and everyone is the enemy) and Winning Hearts and Minds (and they are all hearts and minds that need to be won). We worry that the military is dropping standards and incorporating hate groups. We worry that the many good kids have below par equipment and that Congress keeps nibbling away at the long term resources and commitments, while Vietnam war vets are homeless in the streets.

Along with those things, we worry about the journalists out there, trying to get out stories, protect their people, support their government, build trust with local sources, be wary of local sources, build trust with military sources, be wary of military sources and provide information without becoming pro or con propagandists.

Again, God go with you.

Jane,

Don't give up hope. Keep doing your job. I believe you and I know that more and more of us are "waking up" from the foggy depths of 9/11 to see again with our old eyes.

Then who's breaking the story? So many reporters took this administration lying down and now we are stuck reporting "the obvious." Break the story.

Headshot writes:

"Foleys [sic] is responsible for his personnel [sic] actions. The present admin is not."

Dear Headshot: find me someone - anyone - who is claiming that anyone else but Foley is responsible for sending those IM messages. Anyone. You're knocking down a strong man here.

What the administration IS responsible for is covering it up. They knew that Foley was engaged in this kind of behavior but did nothing to stop it because they wanted to keep that seat in the House so badly. THAT is what the administration is responsible for: a failure of leadership.

Since you are actually IN Iraq, perhaps you can answer a very troubling question for me. WHERE are the millions of Iraqis who supposedly voted and we were shown clips of ink stained fingers when they had elections? Have they just evaporated or have they left their country they were willing to risk their lives to vote for? If they were so willing to risk millions of lives to vote - where are they now and WHY are they not willing to risk those same lives to STOP these thugs and murderers in their country? Seems all we hear in blogs and on the news is about the violence which is horrific - comparisons have been made here to what if that happened in the US. I can tell you what would happen here and DOES happen here - when drugs and violence start to overwhelm a community - the citizens get fed up with it and start community watch groups - take responsibility THEMSELVES for making their communities safe - oftentimes at risk of their lives and some do DIE in the process. They don't just sit on their butts and watch their families destroyed, their communities destroyed forever - they reach a point to DO something. If the so called MILLIONS really voted and really exist - please explain to me WHERE they are and WHY they are not making an effort to stop this violence. They surely outnumber the thugs by a large margin - IF - the numbers reported on US news was correct. Or was that another Bush admin. lie too? Thank you if you can shed some light on this for me. I would greatly appreciate the truth from someone who is there and who has access to the truth. All we ever hear is the poor Iraqi people - what about those who voted? Surely all of them are not dead already.

I would like to first applaud the young women and men of the military because although they are fighting a war, that is not our war...they are still there getting the job done and doing the best they can with what they have. I think no one undermines the job that they do there, and the difficulties that they will have to face once they return to normal life. BUT and that is big BUT, is not America's job to bring democracy to every militant muslim country that there is. We also have to think about ourselves. Not only that but this war instead of quelling the hate against American people has only ignited it. Our borders and ports are a joke, and 5 years after 9/11 we still have a long way to go, does nobody care about that?? I feel more unsafe than ever. I am only an observer, neither a republican/democrat and from what i have seen these past 3 years, the BS stinks all the way from here.
Is great that we are building schools and hospitals, is the least that we can do for these people. But that is not what we are there for!!!!!!!!! Is not running away but rather come up with another plan because this one is not working.