Iraq in Der Spiegel

So the often very good German weekly, Der Spiegel, has run a very good piece assessing the current situation in Iraq, especially against the five-year anniversary speech made this week by Bush. The piece is entitled "Wie Bush der Wirklichkeit trotzt," which means, more or less, "How Bush Defies the Truth." Here's the opening blurb:

"Nobel", "notwendig", "gerecht" nennt US-Präsident Bush den Irak-Krieg zum fünften Jahrestag. Und blendet das Desaster im Land einfach aus: Kein Wort zu den enormen Kosten, der politischen Zerrissenheit, den vielen Toten - die Schönfärberei nehmen ihm auch die meisten Amerikaner nicht mehr ab.

Funny thing, though. The English site at Der Spiegel ran, more or less contemporaneously, another story, entitled "Life in Baghdad after the Fall of Saddam."

The heading here is informative:

Five years after the US invasion, no one misses Saddam, but some Baghdadis are nostalgic for the relative freedom and stability they had before the Americans came.

Just the change in tone is pretty remarkable. It's unfortunate that the editors at this magazine choose to offer different sets of stories to their English and German readers.