Letter: Defense statistics on Iraq may exaggerate progress

Editor,

This is in response to Ben Mills' letter in Monday's Daily Lobo, "Mass media not covering positive changes in Iraq." Although I applaud his efforts to share some positive changes in Iraq, I might question the validity of some of the statistics found on the Department of Defense Web site as examples of progressive United States policy and influence.

For example, considering the 3,100 renovated schools, are the schools those that were damaged in the American-led invasion, as were countless other vital public institutions? Further, do they yet have running water and electricity, facilities that are still hard to come by in much of that war-torn country, despite large influxes of capital aimed at resurrecting

those services? And will girls be allowed to attend those schools - or, rather, will their right to attend be protected by the new Iraqi institutions?

Is the enrollment of 4.3 million Iraqi children in primary school an increase over past, pre-invasion years? As for the Iraqi police force - is this the same police force that harbored members found to have abused and tortured Sunni prisoners in at least one secret location? I am simply stressing an objective perspective when trying to quantify the "positive influence" of our nation overseas, one Mills claims most reporters lack, given their criticisms of our government and president. Perhaps these members of the media sense that the Iraqis have far more serious problems to negotiate than access to polio vaccinations, despite the latter's importance. Simply enumerating items on the Department of Defense's arguably biased list of accomplishments does not provide a fair and balanced perspective. In any case, the real question for Iraqis remains - are all of these advances worth the extraordinary loss of life and limb during the invasion and the subsequent occupation of the country by U.S. forces?

Melissa LaLiberte

NM graduate student