{"id":1121,"date":"2007-07-30T13:13:49","date_gmt":"2007-07-30T18:13:49","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/?p=1121"},"modified":"2007-07-30T13:18:04","modified_gmt":"2007-07-30T18:18:04","slug":"more-wingnut-propaganda","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/?p=1121","title":{"rendered":"More Wingnut Propaganda"},"content":{"rendered":"

From today’s Rush Limbaugh show, more talking points from Fox News:<\/p>\n

Here is the most important thing Americans need to understand: We are finally getting somewhere in Iraq, at least in military terms. As two analysts who have harshly criticized the Bush administration\u2019s miserable handling of Iraq, we were surprised by the gains we saw and the potential to produce not necessarily \u201cvictory\u201d but a sustainable stability that both we and the Iraqis could live with.<\/p>\n

After the furnace-like heat, the first thing you notice when you land in Baghdad is the morale of our troops. In previous trips to Iraq we often found American troops angry and frustrated \u2014 many sensed they had the wrong strategy, were using the wrong tactics and were risking their lives in pursuit of an approach that could not work.<\/p>\n

Today, morale is high. The soldiers and marines told us they feel that they now have a superb commander in Gen. David Petraeus; they are confident in his strategy, they see real results, and they feel now they have the numbers needed to make a real difference.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Well, who cares what Limbaugh thinks.\u00a0 He’s just a neocon tool.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Except that unless you’ve been getting your news from Daily Kos or Minnesota Monitor living under a rock, you know that the article cited came from the NYTimes<\/a>, and was written by Michael O’Hanlon and Kevin Pollack, fellows at the center-left Brookings Institute.<\/p>\n

The coverage is even-handed, and by no means a piece of administration cheerleading:<\/p>\n

Outside Baghdad, one of the biggest factors in the progress so far has been the efforts to decentralize power to the provinces and local governments. But more must be done. For example, the Iraqi National Police, which are controlled by the Interior Ministry, remain mostly a disaster. In response, many towns and neighborhoods are standing up local police forces, which generally prove more effective, less corrupt and less sectarian. The coalition has to force the warlords in Baghdad to allow the creation of neutral security forces beyond their control.<\/p>\n

In the end, the situation in Iraq remains grave. In particular, we still face huge hurdles on the political front. Iraqi politicians of all stripes continue to dawdle and maneuver for position against one another when major steps towards reconciliation \u2014 or at least accommodation \u2014 are needed. This cannot continue indefinitely. Otherwise, once we begin to downsize, important communities may not feel committed to the status quo, and Iraqi security forces may splinter along ethnic and religious lines.<\/p>\n

How much longer should American troops keep fighting and dying to build a new Iraq while Iraqi leaders fail to do their part? And how much longer can we wear down our forces in this mission? These haunting questions underscore the reality that the surge cannot go on forever. But there is enough good happening on the battlefields of Iraq today that Congress should plan on sustaining the effort at least into 2008<\/strong>.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

I, myself, have been quiet about the war for a while because – oddly – I have had little to say.\u00a0 But as a matter of fact I spent a few hours over the weekend working on a piece on the subject (which I’m sure all have awaited with bated breath).\u00a0\u00a0 I’m going to run it tomorrow or Wednesday.<\/p>\n

Until then, though, read the piece.\u00a0 It’s interesting, encouraging (to those of us who don’t lust for a US defeat, anyway) and…<\/p>\n

…will probably get zero coverage in the mainstream\/lefty media.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

From today’s Rush Limbaugh show, more talking points from Fox News: Here is the most important thing Americans need to understand: We are finally getting somewhere in Iraq, at least in military terms. As two analysts who have harshly criticized the Bush administration\u2019s miserable handling of Iraq, we were surprised by the gains we saw […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1121","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-war-on-terror"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1121","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1121"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1121\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1121"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1121"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1121"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}