After Sean Hannity’s trip, another commentator returned from a tour of Iraq and found that the mainstream media are not telling the entire story on the progress. Syndicated columnist and blogger Michelle Malkin appeared on the O’Reilly Factor along with Democratic strategist Kirsten Powers to discuss what she found on the ground. Despite all of the grim news coming from the media, Malkin asserted "you don’t get a true full sense of the work and the small baby steps and progress that are being made" including "Iraqi civilians that are cooperating with our U.S. troops." The transcript is below.
Bill O’Reilly: "In the 'Impact' segment, 27 American military killed in Iraq over the weekend. And support for the war, as you know, is shaky. All the polls say the majority of Americans are now against it. Fox News analyst Michelle Malkin just back from Iraq and she also has some comments on Hillary Clinton as does Fox News analyst Kirsten Powers. Kirsten's here in New York, Michelle is in Washington. Michelle, what did you learn in Iraq while you were there?"
Michelle Malkin: "Well, I learned a lot. It was a short trip, we were there for a week imbedded with the Dagger brigade in northern Baghdad at forward operating base Justice. And as I say it was a short trip, but we got a firsthand look, my hotair.com colleague Brian Preston and I, at the hard work of counter insurgency. And what we heard from the troops is this is not something that is a short-term commitment. They are in it for the long haul. And, you know, when you listen to the mainstream media coverage, the daily death count, and the bomb explosions, and the horrible things that are, that are happening, you don't get a true full sense of the work and the small baby steps and progress that are being made: Iraqi civilians who are cooperating with our U.S. troops, Iraqi Army, brave people, both Sunni and Shia who are joining the Iraqi security forces, trying to stand up the army there and trying to stand up to a lot of the corruption and a lot of the bad stuff that is going in the Maliki government. I think there needs to not only be the, the military commitment there, and certainly the surge will help, but also more political pressure on the Maliki government to crack down on Shiite death militias and not just the Sunni insurgents."
