Kagan wonders aloud (HT Hugh Hewitt) in his Sunday Washington Post column, with this introduction:
A front-page story in The Post last week suggested that the Bush administration has no backup plan in case the surge in Iraq doesn't work. I wonder if The Post and other newspapers have a backup plan in case it does.
Leading journalists have been reporting for some time that the war was hopeless, a fiasco that could not be salvaged by more troops and a new counterinsurgency strategy.
Kagan's main point goes to credibility, but it's really a business question too. It applies a bit more to papers and media outlets other than the Post, which has shown occasional sanity (starting at the link's third paragraph) while others have totally lost their bearings. If the Surge succeeds (and it's barely started, so who knows?), aren't readers, listeners, and viewers going to wonder who's been feeding them a load of rubbish about "the hopeless situation" for 3-plus years? Would you not expect even more of them to cancel their subscriptions and turn away in even higher numbers from Formerly Mainstream Media outlets?
Cross-posted at BizzyBlog.com.
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success is failure, with Bush at the wheel says MSM
March 11, 2007 - 18:52 ET by DontFeedTheTrollsSucceed or not, it will be reported as a failure by the MSM. Somehow, it will be spun just like the spin for the last xx years.
D
A day without NewsBusters is like a day without sunshine.
.... it is unforgivable what
March 11, 2007 - 19:04 ET by bigtimer.... it is unforgivable what the leftist msm in all forms have done...
Sorta like - "The surge
March 11, 2007 - 20:16 ET by FastEdSorta like - "The surge worked 'cause the demolibs forced Bush's hand, making him do something before they could cut funding!" OR "The surge finally worked because Bush finally listened to the demolibs who said there weren't enough troops to start with!".
There is no sense in being stupid, if you can't prove it! - my dad V
Yeah, it is amazing to me how
March 12, 2007 - 17:54 ET by BDYeah, it is amazing to me how the libs get into these anti-american predicaments.
Two years ago it was "We are losing the war because the country is a wreck and can niether produce oil nor electricity." So that got fixed.
Then the liberals switched to "The war is being lost because the Iraqi Military is a wreck that will not fight." So that got fixed.
Now we have occasional spats between Sunni and SHia as they vie for power and that is the apparent reason for out defeat. That will be fixed soon enough.
But the ultimate question is what will the liberals bitch about next? Anybody have any guesses?
BD, Victory!
March 12, 2007 - 18:05 ET by bigtimerBD,
Victory!
Bigtimer, the Libs are way t
March 13, 2007 - 10:13 ET by BDBigtimer,
the Libs are way too invested in defeat. When Bagdhad cools down the mantra from the left will probably become something like "But beneath the surface the Sunni, Kurds, and Shia still do not like each other, and we are being beaten because they do not universally love each other."
Do you believe, absent a br
March 13, 2007 - 10:25 ET by sarcasmoDo you believe, absent a brutal Tito/Saddam style totalitarian strongman, the three tribes you just mentioned can actually get along as a single nation in anything like a republic where individual rights are respected? Because I don't. I've seen no historical evidence for it, either. But hopefully I'm wrong.
JMR
Do I see any potential for th
March 14, 2007 - 11:11 ET by BDDo I see any potential for that? Yes I do.
A good example of this is the differing population bases present in places like Northern Ireland and even in the US post Civil War.
It takes time, but it can happen.
kittens
March 11, 2007 - 19:16 ET by Pragmatic-ManHey honey!... come look, one of the kittens just opened his eyes!
Pragmatism always prevails... even Winston was once a lib.
What's the long-term meanin
March 12, 2007 - 03:41 ET by sarcasmoWhat's the long-term meaning of "succeeds," anyway? I still happen to think Iraq is really 3 countries, and that only a brutal, Tito-style (or Saddam-style) dictatorship can make it function as anything like one & prevent civil war in the long run. This means we'll need to admit the Brits screwed-up on the question of "how many countries is Iraq?" long-ago, and few people -- especially the Republican political types who are now heavily-invested in this war -- seem willing to admit that fact, despite its blatant obviousity...The UN also seems to hate it when new nations are born. Since just about every nation in the region has been busy hating the Kurds when they weren't actively-killing the Kurds; a new, separate Kurdistan would be especially-inconvenient for Iran & Turkey.
JMR
Realism is now Defeatism
March 13, 2007 - 10:45 ET by MobiusStripI agree with your analysis of Iraq as a largely unworkable country. Our interests there are based on resources, not WMDs, Democracy, or regional stability. We didn't find the first, can't found the second and have created greater Mideastern INstability by having gone there for the first couple of "reasons"- which handily shifted around. The problem with ascribing a "defeatist" attitude to the left is that is no longer even a laughable argument, unless you include the numerous military experts that agree with what was obvious from the outset. We've been there for "XX years", spent a lot of lives and treasure, and there is no understandable end in sight. It really humors me when the challenge to the media is put out that "they" should come up with a plan to extricate us from this mess. I don't think we voted them in, and given the current state of affairs, calling the media the progenitors of this is ridiculous. While heads roll at the Pentagon, the Justice Department, and how many other places in the last few years and weeks, some people just don't care to fathom or are willing to admit that it is the incompetency of this government that has put us there. Go figure.
First, have Hillary wear a sc
March 12, 2007 - 08:33 ET by ucFirst, have Hillary wear a scarlet "L" (loser) dress for three years. Second, start actually reporting the news. Third, actually publish such actual reporting. And, forth, Add picture of President Reagan to their mastheads for remainder of their business existance.