Why don't they write about all the progress made in the Green Zone?

I had missed this, I guess. Must have averted my eyes when scrolling through bullshitosphere of the 101st Fighting Keyboarders. Seems an editorial writer, scratching out his column from the relative danger of St. Paul, Minn., criticized his "colleagues" in Iraq for not reporting the "real news" he gets unfiltered from military buddies inside the Green Zone.

His "colleagues" have responded.

From Hannah Allam:

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Mr. Yost could have come with me today as I visited one of my own military buddies, who like most officers doesn't leave the protected Green Zone compound except by helicopter or massive convoy. The Army official picked me up in his air-conditioned Explorer, took me to Burger King for lunch and showed me photos of the family he misses so terribly. The official is a great guy, and like so many other soldiers, it's not politics that blind him from seeing the real Iraq. The compound's maze of tall blast wall and miles of concertina wire obscure the view, too.

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If Baghdad is too far for Mr. Yost to travel (and I don't blame him, given the treacherous airport road to reach our fortress-like hotel), why not just head to Oklahoma? There, he can meet my former Iraqi translator, Ban Adil, and her young son. They're rebuilding their lives under political asylum after insurgents in Baghdad followed Ban's family home one night and gunned down her 4-year-old daughter, her husband and her elderly mother in law.

Freshly painted schools and a new desalination plant might add up to "mission accomplished" for some people. Too bad Ban's daughter never got to enjoy those fruits of her liberation.