Iraq through Rosen-coloured glasses

"Not long after Nir Rosen arrived in Iraq in 2003, he decided that the country and its people are beyond redemption. He met some hateful anti-semites and decided that was what the country was about. This impression has set the tone of his reports from Iraq, the latest of which is in the Atlantic Monthly, in which he calls for the withdrawal of U.S. troops:

"If the occupation were to end, so, too, would the insurgency. After all, what the resistance movement has been resisting is the occupation."

How could he possibly know that? He doesn't say. Readers are supposed to respect his expertise because he is a visitor to the country. He says most Iraqis see U.S. soldiers as the enemy and want them to leave. It's true Iraqis want the Americans to leave, simply because nobody wants to be occupied. But Iraqis don't see the U.S. soldiers as the enemy and don't want the Americans to leave too soon because they worry about being left to the terrorists.

Like so many other reporters who go to Iraq and miss major, salient facts of the war, Rosen insists he knows Iraq and asks the following baffling question:

"Who would the insurgents fight if the enemy left?""
IraqiPundit