Putting aside obvious disappointment we feel over the Democratic leadership's politically dumb decision to strip the timelines out of the Iraq war funding bill, there's more evidence today that September is pretty much meaningless. Joe Klein from Time Magazine has a piece out today that provides a taste of the type of media stories we're probably going to see a lot of in September. That's the month when Saint Petraeus will know "if the surge is working." If it isn't, of course, Republicans will finally defy Dear Leader and stop rubber-stamping the war's continuation. Klein's "senior U.S. military official" tells him that violence in Anbar Province is down and "Al-Qaeda is on the run."
Glenn Greenwald, who writes an amazing (though long) column every day in Salon, illustrates the ridiculousness of anonymously quoting government sources saying "we've turned a corner" when Tony Snow has been saying the same thing all week. Obviously U.S. officials have a stake in maintaining (or when your poll numbers are as low as they are now, obtaining) public support for Bush Administration policies. Journalists do the public a disservice by acting as stenographers. They clearly haven't learned from this problem even after having been being duped by planted WMD stories in the run-up to the Iraq war (which Greenwald elaborates on here and here).
Plus, as Greenwald explains:
As a side note, this reminds me a lot of the delusional global warming debate we have in this county and kind of highlights the pitifully low state of our public discourse. Shockingly, I have some friends who are conservatives (including my dad) who would, whenever we'd have a day during the winter that wasn't abnormally warm, throw out some snide remark like "I guess Al Gore was wrong, huh? Doesn't seem like there's much global warming happening today." This would piss me off to no end, because this remark is so intellectually lazy, so easily rebutted if you'd take 2 seconds to think about it.
Same situation with Iraq. Evidence of violence declining SOMEWHERE in Iraq, especially the one place we've concentrated thousands of extra troops, provides no evidence of progress toward the military, economic, and religious reconciliation that we would need to see in order to declare "victory" in Iraq. Just like a day in February where the temperature falls below 50 degrees is not evidence against a general, on average, warming trend.
So don't get excited. Nothing will happen in September because Republicans have been saying "withdrawal means defeat" and "we're staying till the job is done" for too long and flip-flopping on that would mean they "hate the troops" and are "rooting for defeat" right? Besides, here will always be SOME evidence of a corner being planted by the Bush Administration and delivered to the American public courtesy of our media stenographers.
In summary and conclusion:
Glenn Greenwald, who writes an amazing (though long) column every day in Salon, illustrates the ridiculousness of anonymously quoting government sources saying "we've turned a corner" when Tony Snow has been saying the same thing all week. Obviously U.S. officials have a stake in maintaining (or when your poll numbers are as low as they are now, obtaining) public support for Bush Administration policies. Journalists do the public a disservice by acting as stenographers. They clearly haven't learned from this problem even after having been being duped by planted WMD stories in the run-up to the Iraq war (which Greenwald elaborates on here and here).
Plus, as Greenwald explains:
Many, many times over the last four years -- in numerous places in Iraq -- violence has ebbed temporarily. Yet Iraq, contrary to the ongoing claims from the Bush administration and its followers, has inexorably descended into total chaos and violence. Pointing to three-day lapses in violence in a single place as proof that things are improving is so transparently irrational that, particularly at this point, it merits as much response as the desperate claim that anyone who opposes the war "wants the U.S. to lose."
As a side note, this reminds me a lot of the delusional global warming debate we have in this county and kind of highlights the pitifully low state of our public discourse. Shockingly, I have some friends who are conservatives (including my dad) who would, whenever we'd have a day during the winter that wasn't abnormally warm, throw out some snide remark like "I guess Al Gore was wrong, huh? Doesn't seem like there's much global warming happening today." This would piss me off to no end, because this remark is so intellectually lazy, so easily rebutted if you'd take 2 seconds to think about it.
Same situation with Iraq. Evidence of violence declining SOMEWHERE in Iraq, especially the one place we've concentrated thousands of extra troops, provides no evidence of progress toward the military, economic, and religious reconciliation that we would need to see in order to declare "victory" in Iraq. Just like a day in February where the temperature falls below 50 degrees is not evidence against a general, on average, warming trend.
So don't get excited. Nothing will happen in September because Republicans have been saying "withdrawal means defeat" and "we're staying till the job is done" for too long and flip-flopping on that would mean they "hate the troops" and are "rooting for defeat" right? Besides, here will always be SOME evidence of a corner being planted by the Bush Administration and delivered to the American public courtesy of our media stenographers.
In summary and conclusion:
General Petraeus will, cautiously though emphatically, declare that progress is being made, though there is much work that remains to be done. And therefore we must redouble our resolve and stay until The Job is Done.
Do Generals ever say that they are failing in their mission and that their wars have become hopeless? Petraeus himself has repeatedly said that his Surge Strategy will require far more than a few months to succeed. By its very terms, it cannot have failed by September. He has already come to Washington and declared improvements, and his senior military officials are sending their pets, such as Joe Klein, to Time with exciting new reports about Al-Qeada being on the run. That is but a preview of the dramatic and electrifying film to be released in September.
