Robert Parry: The NYT's New Pro-War Propaganda

[marmar]

from Consortium News:


The NYT's New Pro-War Propaganda

By Robert Parry
July 30, 2007

No need to wait until September. It’s already obvious how George W. Bush and his still-influential supporters in Washington will sell an open-ended U.S. military occupation of Iraq – just the way they always have: the war finally has turned the corner and withdrawal now would betray the troops by snatching defeat from the jaws of victory.

At one time, the Iraq story line was how many schoolrooms had been painted or how well the government security forces were doing. Now there are new silver linings being detected that will justify a positive progress report in September – and the U.S. news media is again ready to play its credulous part.

President Bush signaled the happy-news judgment of his hand-picked commander, Gen. David Petraeus, in a round of confident public appearances over the past two weeks. With his effusive praise of “David,” as Bush called the general at a White House news conference, the President acted like a smug student arriving for a test with the answers tucked in his pocket.

Another key element of the coming propaganda campaign was previewed on the op-ed page of the New York Times on July 30 as Michael E. O’Hanlon and Kenneth M. Pollack of the Brookings Institution portrayed themselves as tough critics of the Bush administration who, after a visit to Iraq, now must face the facts: Bush’s “surge” is working.

“As two analysts who have harshly criticized the Bush administration’s miserable handling of Iraq, we were surprised by the gains we saw and the potential to produce not necessarily ‘victory’ but a sustainable stability that both we and the Iraqis could live with,” O’Hanlon and Pollack wrote in an article entitled “A War We Just Might Win.”

Yet the authors – and the New York Times – failed to tell readers the full story about these supposed skeptics: far from grizzled peaceniks, O’Hanlon and Pollack have been longtime cheerleaders for a larger U.S. military occupying force in Iraq. .....(more)

The complete piece is at: http://www.consortiumnews.com/2007/073007.html

[Joanne98]

1. IMPEACH THE MEDIA! K&R!

[MannyGoldstein]

2. The NY Times Has Already Said We Should Withdraw Immediately

One of the few papers to do this.

For better or for worse, I believe that it's the Times' style to not run editorial comments in an op-ed bio.

[jimshoes]

3. “A War We Just Might Win.”

and pigs might just start to fly. Sustainable stability just doesn't have the same panache, as say, victory. But maybe the 28%er's will willingly swallow that.