What Iraq is really like, as opposed to the wingnut press reports

Representative Jim McGovern(D-MA) went on a trip to Iraq to see what was going on over there. Seems like he found a lot of things wrong with the place. He asks the following questions in today's editorial in The Nation:

If things in Iraq are so much better, why are we not decreasing the number of US forces there? Why is the insurgency showing no signs of waning? Why are we being told that in a few months the Administration will again ask Congress for billions of dollars more to fight the war? Why, according to the World Food Program, is hunger among the Iraqi people getting worse?

I think the American people have a right to know. Why are we being lied to, or at least deceived?

Lieut. Gen. David Petraeus, tasked with overseeing training of Iraqi security forces, informed us that 147,000 Iraqis had been trained. That sounded good to me. Perhaps we could start reducing the number of American forces, I suggested. But upon further questioning, General Petraeus conceded that less than one-fourth of the 147,000 were actually "combat capable." Why didn't he say that to begin with? I asked--respectfully--our military and diplomatic officials what the gap was between the Iraqis we have trained and the number we needed to train in order to draw down the number of US troops. I could not get a straight answer.

This is the type of "truth" we hear. Of course, the statement "147,000 Iraqis had been trained" makes us believe that things are all good. After being bombarded with questions, the real truth came out of the general. "less than one-fourth of the 147,000 were actually "combat capable." More misinformation:

During the morning of our visit, US military officials crowed about a recent operation in which Iraqi security forces had killed eighty-five insurgents. By the afternoon, when more reports came in, it was unclear how many insurgents had actually been killed and whether the Iraqi security forces had exaggerated their own actions.

And finally, when we could have straight up truth, we aren't allowed to hear it:

Our young men and women in uniform are performing their difficult duties extraordinarily well. Indeed, the only honest and direct responses I got from any American in Iraq were from the soldiers. They told me they had been instructed by their superiors not to share any complaints with visitors.

Some of the soldiers are on their THIRD tour in Iraq now. Why aren't the flagwavers out there trying to get them home? They are always screaming, "SUPPORT THE TROOPS! (TM)" but they never support the troops by writing to their Congressmen or protesting to get them home.

The presence of dissent is a good indicator that a democracy is working. So where is it in the USA?