The situation in Iraq from those journalists on the ground paints a bleak picture. Clark Hoyt is a Knight Ridder reporter in Baghdad. In response to those claiming Western journalists are creating a deliberately negative picture of Iraq, he responds forcefully:
“Iraqis currently have electricity for an average of nine hours a day. A year ago, they averaged 10 hours of electricity. Iraq’s oil production is still below pre-war levels. The unemployment rate is between 30 and 40 percent. New cases of hepatitis have doubled over the rate of 2002, largely because of problems with getting clean drinking water and disposing of sewage.”
Hoyt says that any positive news emerging from Iraq is coming from the American military or those living inside the heavily-fortified Green Zone. They are divorced from reality.