Terry Everett, June 28, 2004

Today there is as much a public relations battle in Iraq as there are terror attacks in that Middle Eastern nation. Terrorists are finding the American media fertile ground for their message of death. The daily reports of car bombings and other terror attacks in Iraq are just what these criminals want in order to create the perception in America and the West that Iraq has become a lawless and hopeless place where the United States is no longer wanted.

Over the last few months, it is no secret that terror attacks have increased in Iraq. What is different about their character now is that in more recent weeks they have shifted from direct action against American troops to assaults on ordinary Iraqis. The terrorists know that the United States will not be a permanent fixture in Iraq. Their cowardly acts of violence have not worked to deter our efforts to rebuild that nation and work toward Iraqi self rule. In that regard, the terrorists have failed and they know it. They have accordingly shifted their strategy to that of terrorizing the Iraqi public.

This week, the interim Iraqi government takes back the functions of government previously handled by the Coalition Provisional Authority. This minor miracle is what the terrorists fear the most - a democratic Iraq. Recent assassinations of Iraqi leaders and bombing deaths of hundreds of innocent civilians starkly reveal the terrorists' motives - to undermine local Iraqi rule and create chaos.

Unwitting allies in this public relations battle have been the media. The TV news and the morning newspaper headlines reflect this fact with non-stop stories of local terrorist-engineered violence in Iraq without much attention to what is going right in that nation. News coverage has gone so askew that on June 19, Iraq's deputy prime minister asked the U.S. media to offer a more balanced view of events in his country.

"I hope you from the American press will be able to tell people back home …that (through) this mission you are giving an entire nation an opportunity to be rid of their challenges," said Barham Salih as reported by the American Forces Press Service. "These soldiers are helping renovate schools and so on, and very, very little of that is reported." This is echoed in the reflection of the new Iraqi president Ghazi al-Yawer that 90 percent of what's going in Iraq is positive. "The media is magnifying the ten percent, ignoring the 90 percent," he observed.

One network recently aired a story about electrical problems in Iraq as if they were the fault of the U.S. led coalition. They ignore the fact the power service has actually improved in the last year after decades of Saddam neglect.

Indeed, you hear little about the dramatic decrease over the last year of Iraqis fleeing their homeland. You hear next to nothing about how we've improved the lives of ordinary Iraqis through refurbishing 240 hospitals and 1,200 clinics; how we've vaccinated 5 million Iraqi children and renovated 2,356 schools. Nor do you hear about the water and sanitation projects that will benefit 14.5 million Iraqis. You don't hear about the significant rise in the value of the Iraqi currency or the increase in oil production. You also will not hear how Iraqis have local governing councils in 90 percent of the nation's towns. Or that over 60 percent of Iraqi government functions were transferred to local control well in advance of June 30.

I'm running out of space and have just scratched the surface of what's really going on and why. The progress in Iraq does not generate flashy headlines, but it is real and growing. I'm more optimistic about the future of Iraq than I am about the national media eventually giving the matter balanced coverage.

Congressman Terry Everett, a Republican, represents Alabama's Second Congressional District, which includes the state capitol, Montgomery.