General Casey noted these facts about the last week or so:
In general, Iraqi security force leaders took the initiative early on in moving to full alert and to securing key sites. In eight of the 18 provinces in Iraq, there was little to no reaction to the bombing, and this includes Anbar province, which as you know has been one of the most difficult challenges that we've wrestled with. In eight other provinces, there were demonstrations and there was militia activity, but it was quickly contained by Iraqi police and by the Iraqi army. And this demonstrates a maturing capability to cooperate and operate effectively in providing domestic order, and we saw this in several places around the country.
In Baghdad and Basra, where our security response was also strong, it did take the Iraqi security forces a few days to settle the situation, and this with the assistance of the coalition forces in a supporting role.
Now I think it's important to note here that in all cases, Iraqi security ministries and Iraqi security force leadership directed the operations, and the coalition responded in a supporting and assisting role.
Additionally, the Iraqi transitional government reacted to the situation by imposing curfews and driving vans, making public calls for calm, and these also assisted in bringing down the levels of violence.
The second point I'd like to make and to address is the levels of violence themselves.
Candidly, in the initial days following the bombing, these days were kind of a confusing jumble of exaggerated reporting that actually took us a few days to kind of sort through.
What did we find?
First of all, the overall levels of violence did not increase substantially as a result of the bombing. In fact, the levels of violence the week after the violence -- the week after the bombing were comparable to the two previous weeks.
Second, the nature of the violence did, in fact, change with attacks on mosques and civilian killings increasing initially and then gradually tapering off.
We can confirm about 30 attacks on mosques around the country, with less than 10 of those mosques moderately damaged and only two or three of those mosques severely damaged.
Violence contained by mostly Iraqi forces, violence not at unusual levels, mosque attacks hardly widespread and serious, and Sadr areas of Baghdad and Basra suspiciously conspicuous.
The press went in determined to report a civil war brewing and darned if they didn't report on just that. The press is basically worthless as a means of reporting on events. In their rush to analyze our reporters can't be bothered to notice the basic facts. A real PUBAR, if you ask me.
We should abolish every journalism school in America and replace them with 3-credit-hour typing classes.
UPDATE: Ralph Peters (via Instapundit) calls out the journalists as he travels around Baghdad vainly looking for the civil war the press insists is imminent (again that word) or ongoing:
So why were we told that Iraq was irreversibly in the throes of civil war when it wasn't remotely true? I think the answers are straightforward. First, of course, some parties in the West are anxious to believe the worst about Iraq. They've staked their reputations on Iraq's failure.
But there's no way we can let irresponsible journalists off the hook - or their parent organizations. Many journalists are, indeed, brave and conscientious; yet some in Baghdad - working for "prestigious" publications - aren't out on the city streets the way they pretend to be.
They're safe in their enclaves, protected by hired guns, complaining that it's too dangerous out on the streets. They're only in Baghdad for the byline, and they might as well let their Iraqi employees phone it in to the States. Whenever you see a column filed from Baghdad by a semi-celeb journalist with a "contribution" by a local Iraqi, it means this: The Iraqi went out and got the story, while the journalist stayed in his or her room.
And the Iraqi stringers have cracked the code: The Americans don't pay for good news. So they exaggerate the bad.
And some of them have agendas of their own.
To quote Frozone of The Incredibles, the press look like bad guys--incompetent bad guys.
ANOTHER UPDATE: Welcome Instapundit readers. Feel free to use the term "PUBAR" when describing the woefully inadequate skills of our media. I swear, if it's big and green, our reporters think it's a "tank," and if it is American they think it is losing ...
