The Good Old Days
Sen. Carl Levin (D-Mich.), the chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee, read aloud parts of a lengthy New York Times article about the effect of the surge in Baghdad--mixed at best.
"No, there are certainly all of those situations to be found in Baghdad, Mr. Chairman," Gen. Petraeus responded mildly.
Listening to this, I was struck that one of the things we no longer hear from top U.S. commanders in Iraq is media bashing. For years, the generals (and their civilian overseers) insisted that the situation was far better than portrayed by the journalists. Remember when Deputy Defense Secretary Paul Wolfowitz said the news was good, but that reporters were hiding in their hotels and so weren't seeing it? (He later apologized.) We are not hearing that anymore.
Of course, there are a lot of other things we aren't hearing--like the thought that the insurgency was just a few Former Regime Elements, that it would end when Saddam Hussein was captured, or that we would "stand down as they stand up."
By The Washington Post |
September 11, 2007; 3:07 PM ET
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Posted by: Gary Schmitt | September 11, 2007 04:46 PM
We still do hear, however, that in "six months" we'll really be able to assess what's happening. We've heard this every six months since June '03.
Posted by: Roach | September 11, 2007 04:54 PM
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Yeah, what we are also not hearing from reporters like you that cover the Pentagon and military affairs is that the military strategy is no longer a fiasco. If the Bush team can be accused of overselling, so too a few reporters who still have interest in selling their own tired points.