We all know now how reactionary the Associated Press can be, but (for your amusement) I just caught them with their bias pants down (again) in the last few minutes. I was about to link to their article “Iraq violence down and gov’t confidence rising” (headline here) when they changed the headline to “Iraq violence down; war’s root causes unresolved.”
Can you imagine the internal discussion leading to that creepy political bowdlerization? It’s kind of miraculous that the article begins:
Signs are emerging that Iraq has reached a turning point. Violence is down, armed extremists are in disarray, government confidence is rising and sectarian communities are gearing up for a battle at the polls rather than slaughter in the streets.Those positive signs are attracting little attention in the United States, where the war-weary public is focused on the American presidential contest and skeptical of talk of success after so many years of unfounded optimism by the war’s supporters.
Unfounded? By comparison to many wars, the Iraq War has been quick with minisucle numbers of American fatalities compared to Vietnam. But never mind, as the AP hastens to inform us, “the war’s root causes are unresolved.” Some of us will have to be excused for considering the AP’s coverage of the same way, in Orwell’s terms, to have been “objectively pro-fascist.”
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8 Comments
1. Charlie (Colorado):Compared to Viet Nam? Hell, compared to six years in peacetime.
It’s pretty amazing compared to Iwo Jima alone.
I know you’ve heard me rant this rant before, Roger, but it bears repeating until some of these people (like Obama) get it: we’ve had casualties comparable to US military deaths from auto accidents during Clinton’s administration. We’ve had fewer death total than the predictions made for the first month of the invasion. Military historians in the future will treat the Iraq Campaign as a brilliant example of strategy, like we treat Thermopylae, Cannae, and Zama.
Jun 16, 2008 - 5:33 pm 2. Charlie (Colorado):Oh, and as far as the “root causes being unresolved, I’ll just quote a wise old doctor who said “he’s dead, Jim.”
Jun 16, 2008 - 5:35 pm 3. TerryeL:Charlie is right. I have listened to enough old soldiers talk about Korea and the Battle of the Bulge and the Philippines to know that in historical terms this war has been remarkable for its low casualty rate.
As for root causes, there was more than a decade of saber rattling by the Clinton administration in regards to Saddam and his regime. We all know what the root causes were. Saddam could have saved himself and his regime if he had cooperated with the UN. He didn’t.
Jun 16, 2008 - 5:50 pm 4. Lightnin' Hopkins:“Unfounded optimism.” How wonderfully snide. I suppose we should just all snap out of it and get with the program. I blame Bush. There — all better now.
Remember, this is the same organization that once described - with a straight face, mind you - Osama bin Laden as an “exiled Saudi dissident”, as recently as 2006. Think about that for a minute; In the eyes of the AP the brave young Chinese man in front of the tanks in Tiananmen Square, or say, the many jailed librarians wasting away in Castro’s dungeons, are equal to someone with the blood of thousands of innocent Westerners AND all manner of his own people on his hands. Yep, they’re all the same.
Joseph Goebbels call your office.
Jun 16, 2008 - 6:21 pm 5. Barry Dauphin:(AP) Iraq casualties down; government confidence is rising; Bush is still Hitler according to sources.
Jun 16, 2008 - 6:43 pm 6. 1Banjo:Until the last couple of years, the AP was a sort of hold out against the lefty monoculture of the MSM. But now it’s drunk the Kool-Aid. Question everything.
Jun 17, 2008 - 6:21 am 7. jedrury:The AP and the media in general are no smarter
Jun 17, 2008 - 9:06 am 8. IrishLad317:than the average Joe they just hold the microphone.
They feed off the same bottle of MSM Kool Aid, giggle at their own jokes about “stupid Bush,”
wet themselves over BO and glorify their kind
as great Americans.
And guess what? They are really afraid these days as their publishers are going out of business. See the earnings reports of McClathey today; cutting 10% of the work force.
Why? Because of the Internet and Craigslist.
Root causes unresolved? Did I miss something? So Saddam is still alive and violating UN resolutions? He’s still building palaces with OIF money while his people starve? Still cutting our tongues and throwing people into wood chippers? Still planning to resurrect his chemical, bio, and nuclear weapons programs after sanctions are lifted (and working with certain countries to make sure the stalwart UN lifts those sanctions)? Uday and Qusay are still running the rape rooms? Is he still rewarding Palestinian suicide bombers’ families? Still got the his intelligence services working with AQ and AQ offshoots? Holding terror conferences and training terrorists in the North?
What the hell is the AP talking about?
Jun 17, 2008 - 9:41 am