There were briefings held in Washington and Baghdad yesterday, updating our "progress" in country.
Here's another objective story from Knight Ridder which contrasts the coalition's talking points with the realities on the streets. Not a pretty picture.
Just another example that, no matter what propaganda is spewed from inside the Green Zone, we're not winning hearts and minds.
An exerpt below the fold, but you should read the whole thing.
U.S. gives rosy picture of rebuilding Iraq, while people on the streets seethe
BY TIM JOHNSON AND OMAR JASSIM
Knight Ridder Newspapers
BAGHDAD, Iraq - (KRT) - Deep within the Green Zone, the fortified home of Iraq's interim administration, U.S. officials offered an upbeat assessment Thursday of their multibillion-dollar efforts to rebuild the country. Out in the streets of Baghdad, though, it's a parallel universe.
Twenty months after Saddam Hussein's removal from power, electricity blinks on and off. Jobs are scarce. The rat-a-tat of automatic gunfire erupts nearly hourly. Criminal kidnappings for ransom have soared. Parents fear to let their children out for long periods, even to go to school.
Stop just about anyone on the street, and the complaints spill out in torrents.