Pre-Spinning the Spin
Before the con-blog circle jerk does a collective mind-wipe, let me document that CNN did indeed today show footage of Iraqis dancing and celebrating the demise of Abu Musab al-Zarqawi. Must be some new plot by the MSM to report good news in order to make all the bad news stand out more.
And at The Washington Post -- that's The Washington frickin' Post -- the sage and vital William Arkin observes:
The hopeful view is that the death of this important commander and inspirational figure will deflate the terrorist influence in Iraq.
The cynical view is that this it is just another announcement of progress from the administration at a time when it is down and out.
Then there is the anti-everything view, the one that cannot recognize that Zarqawi was a real foreign terrorist in Iraq, there to foment chaos and death. The anti-everything view cannot see beyond loathing for the war and for all things Bush to recognize an achievement, even if it is only a little step.
A-ha! A "little step." More negative spin from the MSM. Indeed.
Editor's Note: As of February 29, 2024, commenting privileges on reason.com posts are limited to Reason Plus subscribers. Past commenters are grandfathered in for a temporary period. Subscribe here to preserve your ability to comment. Your Reason Plus subscription also gives you an ad-free version of reason.com, along with full access to the digital edition and archives of Reason magazine. We request that comments be civil and on-topic. We do not moderate or assume any responsibility for comments, which are owned by the readers who post them. Comments do not represent the views of reason.com or Reason Foundation. We reserve the right to delete any comment and ban commenters for any reason at any time. Comments may only be edited within 5 minutes of posting. Report abuses.
Please
to post comments
Come on joe... say something sillyassed. I love that word.
What do you mean "even the Washington Post?" The WP has been eagerly cheerleading for this war since before it began, dishonestly chastising unnamed skeptics, and viciously denouncing those public figures who've questioned aspects of it all along.
The Post's editorial about Howard Dean, wagging it finger at him for saying that capturing Saddam wouldn't make Americans safer, was just one example.
"The WP has been eagerly cheerleading for this war since before it began,"
Except that warbloggers, etc., still tend use it as an example of a liberal defeatist publication that glories in American failures, blah, blah, blah....
SR,
...which has nothing to do with the Post's role in bringing to light a scandal that destroyed a Republican president thirty years ago.
Or with a strategy to hurl groundless charges of bias at media sources in order to bully them into providing more favorable coverage.
Did I say otherwise, joe?
I spoke to my liberal friends about this and they're all as happy about it as the conservatives I know.
News Flash: All media biased in some fashion, keep this in mind while reading.
This has been your moment of zen.
I think the headline distribution at Google News to be better than most. Crap at least it does it by math, from what I've heard.
Things are only going to get even harder in Iraq. If anyone was an obvious enemy to US/Iraqi forces/Iraqi people, it might have been Zarqawi. Know what do they do? Resume killing each other?
Peace to Iraq and enough terrorism and people who are builing reputations on innocent people's blood.
Please check my blog for a better Syria
http://freesyria.wordpress.com/2006/06/07/why-christians-in-syria-supports-the-current-regimeor-do-they/
Peace to Iraq and enough terrorism and people who are builing reputations on innocent people's blood.
Please check my blog for a better Syria
http://freesyria.wordpress.com/2006/06/07/why-christians-in-syria-supports-the-current-regimeor-do-they/
Peace to Iraq and enough terrorism and people who are builing reputations on innocent people's blood.
Please check my blog for a better Syria
http://freesyria.wordpress.com/2006/06/07/why-christians-in-syria-supports-the-current-regimeor-do-they/
sorry, admin please delete the repeated comments, the system was frozen then suddenly I got 3 posts in
Glad to see that the US is now protected from the imminent threat represented by a back-desert yokel cum warrior of Allah who can't even seem to operate an automatic weapon.
That said, I'm glad they smeared that assholes innards all over the landscape with a JDAM.
asshole's.
Urgh.
The JDAM is a nice touch as it only works with good intel -- which means we got some and, furthermore, the terrs know we did. That is a recipe for a purge or even terr fragging as they try to out the informer.
Consequently, a short-term uptick in violence should not surprise, especially as a fearful, reactive spasm. But BUT but but but but IF the intel assets remain in place, you could be looking at a big boost for the Iraqi security forces.
"Pre-Spinning the Spin"
Okay, let's post-spin the spin.
Let's be extremely optimistic and say we convert Iraq into the equivalent of Puerto Rico.
Was it worth it?
"Pre-Spinning the Spin"
Okay, let's post-spin the spin.
Let's be extremely optimistic and say we convert Iraq into the equivalent of Puerto Rico and Afghanistan into the Virgin Islands.
Was it worth it?
I note that when the news was announced in Iraq the Iraqi reporters cheered and the American/Euros and others sat on their hands.
I wonder what that means?
Ruthless,
Worth it for us or the Iraqis?
SR,
I was not disputing with you, just expanding.
"sorry, admin please delete the repeated comments, the system was frozen then suddenly I got 3 posts in"
Welcome, Fares!
M. Simon
Worth it for us of course. We don't conduct our foreign policy or spend 300-500B for the benefit of other people. To the extent they benefit, its a positive side-effect.
Arkin also says about Task Force 145
"Looking at the ages of the American special forces veterans who have died in the hunt, it is clear that these are not kids, nor amateurs. That should both tell us how difficult the fight has been and also the sacrifices others are making to fight a ruthless and anarchic foe."
You're right. Totally Biased !!!
Did anyone else see Rumsfeld make the announcement? He looked like he was making shit up as he went along.
Was Iraq worth it and for who? It will take longer than Bush time in office for anyone to know.
One thing we have no idea about is the intelligence value of having the US military operating in iraq. The US military is constantly detaining people, questioning them, releasing them. Iraq has borders with Syria, Iran, Saudi, Jordan Turkey. How many agents have we sent across those borders?
We had very few human intelligence assets of our own in Middle East 5 years ago. If the war in Iraq turns outto be worth it for the US the reason may be the intelligence assets that we gained by fighting there.
The only downside of this was that I had to wake up to the sound of George W. Bush giving an oral report for his 5th grade social studies class' current events assignment.
it always seemed to me that zarqawi was a bit of a boogeyman, a manufactured stand-in for all those awful belligerents in iraq we couldn't be bothered figuring out the names of [this was, at least, an attractive way of making sense of this].
i guess now we'll find out. judging by the course of the war after the capture of other such stand-ins [uday/qusay, and then saddam], i'm not optimistic.
also, it's nice to see we finally got confirmation of the number of lower limbs possessed by america's most wanted.
I note that when the news was announced in Iraq the Iraqi reporters cheered and the American/Euros and others sat on their hands.
yeah, those western reporters should have proved their lack of bias by cheering. this makes perfect sense.
Buck Smith,
I'm thinkin' very few red-blooded Americans have your hard-on for human intelligence assets.
Snuh --regarding Zarqawi as bogeyman: The general who started the propaganda campaign to magnify Zarqawi's importance in 2004 has been fairly open about it (until recently). See the WaPo here:
Military Plays Up Role of Zarqawi
Before the con-blog circle jerk does a collective mind-wipe, let me document that CNN did indeed today show footage of Iraqis dancing and celebrating the demise of Abu Musab al-Zarqawi. Must be some new plot by the MSM to report good news in order to make all the bad news stand out more.
No no no, this is the plot by the MSM to paint Muslims in a sympathetic light instead of as the bloodthirsty fanatics they all are. Don't you read Instapundit?
"Let's be extremely optimistic and say we convert Iraq into the equivalent of Puerto Rico."
"Was it worth it?"
If this means that Iraq becomes a wonderful vacation spot with lots of dark-haired hotties skipping through the sand, I'd have to say that the answer is an emphatic "yes."
"If this means that Iraq becomes a wonderful vacation spot with lots of dark-haired hotties skipping through the sand, I'd have to say that the answer is an emphatic "yes.""
For half a trillion dollars, you could probably buy (even in these days of inflated real estate prices, and inflated prices for hotties), your own Med island and a few thousand houris to go with them. Seems like an inflated price. (not to mention loss of life)
Ruthless thinks "very few red-blooded Americans have [my] hard-on for human intelligence assets."
That may be true, but it does not make them right.
I am not saying Bush has not made mistakes, but we are coming up of 5 years since the 9/11 attacks and there have been no mass casualty attacks in the US. Meanwhile Madrid, Bali, London, Russia and all over the Mid East have all been hit. If Bush had really screwed things up badly, it seems like that pattern would not hold.
The question is why no attacks in the US? I don't know for sure but I will throw out a few possible reasons:
1. Powerful people in the Mid East used to pay off Al Quaeda and the other groups to not attack them. They have seen Afghanistan and Iraq fall to US military power. They know if the jihadis hit the US again another Mid East government or two or three are going down.
2. A related effect of the US wars is that the civil war in Islam is now being fought in the Mid-East. That is a right place for it to be fought. We had a civil war here in the US and we kept the fight here. Jihadis used to go to Afghanistan for training. Now they go to Iraq and die.
3.The hum-int reason as I explained above.
I don?t know which reasons are the real reasons for no attacks in the US, could one or all of there or others, but if Bush?s second term ends without another jihadi attack in the US, he will have accomplished something few believed possible on 9/15/2001.
I don?t know which reasons are the real reasons for no attacks in the US, could one or all of there or others
The most likely reason is that they are opportunists, and patient ones at that.
The first attack on the WTC was in 1993, the last was 2001. 8 years without a reason v. 5 years with the speculative reasons provided.
I don't skid; in between WTC 1 and 2 there were attacks on US embassies in Africa, US military barracks in Saudi Arabia, and the USS COle.
None of these were in the US and I agree that the jihadis are patient opportunists who might kill 20 thousand people in some American city next week or next year. But if Bush ends his term with no major attacks having occurred in the US, it will one success for him.