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Gall The News That’s Fit To Print

NYT, concerned about consequences, rewrites history:

The wrangling in Washington over war financing, still fierce despite the Democrats’ decision to forgo for now withdrawal deadlines, has obscured a more fundamental debate over what Iraq’s future might look like without American troops.

As if every major news organization, the Democratic leadership in Congress, and quick-exit advocates had not been studiously ignoring that fundamental issue, when not actively disputing the notion that Iraq might explode in unimagineable violence and chaos if U.S. troops withdraw prematurely.

Curiously, this article quotes Iraqis and anti-war zealots, and lacks any administration or other American voice in support of the U.S. war effort, but doesn’t include any discussion of the popular “U.S. troop presence increases the violence” canard, only the barest allusion to it the Murtha mention. To the contrary, the lede would appear to deny the existence of such a theory:

WASHINGTON, May 26 — There is one matter on which American military commanders, many Iraqis and some of the Bush administration’s staunchest Congressional critics agree: if the United States withdrew its forces from Baghdad’s streets this fall, the murder and mayhem would increase.

In any case, it sounds like the panic we saw expressed in Congress’ surrender last week is spreading. People who lack the will to do what they want to do are going to be looking for excuses to do the right thing.

Topics: Iraq, media, pols

  Posted by Jules Crittenden at 1:24 am on Sunday, May 27, 2007

5 Responses to “Gall The News That’s Fit To Print”

1. blogagog Says:
   May 27th, 2007 at 5:25 am

   “…has obscured a more fundamental debate over what Iraq’s future might look like without American troops.”

   Because as all people know, you can’t have two conversations going at once…

2. Purple Avenger Says:
   May 27th, 2007 at 7:55 am

   The democrats don’t want to be hung with another Rwanda until after the 08′ elections. Even their MSM water bearers couldn’t cover that up for them.

3. RebeccaH Says:
   May 27th, 2007 at 10:17 am

   Never mind what Iraq would look like if we withdrew. What about the rest of the world? What about American credibility and influence, not to mention safety? How much of that do you think we could salvage if we let ourselves get sucked into yet another embassy rooftop debacle?

4. saltydog Says:
   May 28th, 2007 at 3:06 am

   You’ve said it all, Rebecca.

5. corndog Says:
   May 29th, 2007 at 10:22 am

   The poll — the third in Iraq since early 2004 by ABC News and media partners — draws a stark portrait of an increasingly pessimistic population under great emotional stress.

   More than half of Iraqis have curtailed activities like going out of their homes, going to markets or other crowded places and traveling through police checkpoints.

   Only 18 percent of Iraqis have confidence in U.S. and coalition troops, and 86 percent are concerned that someone in their household will be a victim of violence.

   Slightly more than half of Iraqis — 51 percent — now say that violence against U.S. forces is acceptable — up from 17 percent who felt that way in early 2004. More than nine in 10 Sunni Arabs in Iraq now feel this way. . . .

   For the first time since 2003, fewer than half in the country, 42 percent, said that life in Iraq now is better than it was under Saddam Hussein, the late dictator accused of murdering tens of thousands during a brutal regime.

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