Trainee Terrorists?

Michael Yon continues his excellent reporting from Iraq and tells us about progress made in Mosul. Along the way, he makes an excellent observation:

Part of the persistence of the insurgency results from a staggering availability of fighting materials. There are tons of explosives and munitions here in Mosul, with more streaming in every day, though mounting evidence strongly suggests this flow is abating. For example, the street price of 60mm "mortar bombs" was about $3/shot 9 months ago. Now it’s up nearly seven-fold to over $20. Car bomb incidents in Mosul, while still causing major damage to both military and civilians, have been declining. Whether this is a temporary dip or steady trend remains to be seen. Even if the ongoing flow were completely cut off, there is still a deep well of material on hand.

Even Zarqawi and Bin Laden are subject to the laws of supply and demand.

Meanwhile, Chrenkoff has "A Postcard from A Quagmire":

A majority of U.S. soldiers in Iraq say morale is low, according to an Army report that finds psychological stress is weighing particularly heavily on National Guard and Reserve troops.

Which is true, except that the report actually notes improvements on all accounts compared with a similar study one year earlier:

Wednesday's report said the number of suicides in Iraq and Kuwait declined from 24 in 2003 to nine last year...

The overall assessment said 13 percent of soldiers in the most recent study screened positive for a mental health problem, compared with 18 percent a year earlier. Symptoms of acute or post-traumatic stress remained the top mental health problem, affecting at least 10 percent of all soldiers checked in the latest survey.

In the anonymous survey, 17 percent of soldiers said they had experienced moderate or severe stress or problems with alcohol, emotions or their families. That compares with 23 percent a year earlier.

And what about the morale?

The report said 54 percent of soldiers rated their units' morale as low or very low. The comparable figure in a year-earlier Army survey was 72 percent.
So, as the US sinks ever deeper in the Iraqi quagmire, the mental health and morale of its troops are actually improving.

I guess that's actually bad news as far as the media is concerned.

Whether we call it the "Media Insurgency" or "Media Terrorism"; it still adds up to a concerted effort by many in the MSM to minimize the positive and accentuate the negative. One can even catch a whiff of admiration for the terrorists.This, from a "trainee journalist" at the Guardian, who also happens to be a member in good standing of a violent Islamic group.

People like Yon and Chrenkoff provide an objective assessment of what is going on in Iraq; without all the pandering to and enabling of the murderous thugs that are indiscriminantly blowing up fellow Muslims and "occupiers" alike.

Perhaps we should refer to some of the MSM journalists as mere "trainee terrorists"?

UPDATE: Maybe I'm being too kind to journalists. Glenn Reynolds says what he really thinks about their assinine questions to Blair and Howard. And here is Howard's response also.
The terrorists who tried to kill more people in London today are pathetic, incompetent losers. BUT SO ARE THE JOURNALISTS WHOSE BEHAVIOR ENABLES AND ENCOURAGES THEM.

You've got to wonder what is the matter with these people? To figure out the answer, simply look at the agenda these journalists advocate. In trying to lay the blame for terrorism on those who are actively fighting it (and they have tried to do this repeatedly and every chance they get), they manage to distort and deny the last 10 years of history; exonerate the Islamofascists who carry out the brutal and psychopathic acts; and demonstrate what a completely useless source of information their so-called "reporting" represents.

So the answer is: (1) they are filled with hatred toward the current leaders of the West and would prefer that the West lose the war on the Islamofascist terrorists, who are more compatible with their own world view. In order to accomplish that goal, they --consciously or unconsciously (does it really matter? Their behavior says it all)--strive to support anyone who might make the objects of their hatred look bad. How mature. How objective. How disgusting.

What they are doing is usually referred to as bias. But these "trainee terrorists" are oblivious to the implications of their own behavior. They are in reality suicidally biased; and like the suicide bombers they feel grudging awe and admiration for, they explode their venom in measured, calculated explosions that will do the most harm. (2:41 pm 7/21/05)

UPDATE II: Check out the Anchoress, who has a eries of photos that answer most of the dumbass reporter questions that imply Iraq is the "cause" of terror attacks. She visually shows us everything that came before Iraq. (2:55 pm 7/21/05)