Potemkin Story: Understanding the Dora Market (National Review Online)

It was inevitable that the flood of reporters into Iraq this summer to “evaluate” the results of the surge would produce a certain number of irresponsible stories aimed at dismissing progress, alongside the more numerous accurate depictions of successes and setbacks in a complex environment. Even so, Washington Post reporter Sudarsan Raghavan reaches a low point when describing the Dora market as a “Potemkin village,” implying that it is a false showcase of progress concealing real failure. In reality, the Dora market is an amazing success story in its own right, paid for by the blood of American and Iraqi soldiers, and it represents a small part of the critically important success that U.S. forces have achieved in the heart of a neighborhood that had been one of al Qaeda in Iraq’s strongest fortresses.

This article originally appeared on the National Review Online