In a story on Friday's Morning Edition I heard Jackie Northam say, "he pressed ahead without enough military intelligence or troops." Who could she be talking about? What idiot would do such a thing? Hmmm....
Maliki, of course! Yes, NPR is covering up the mess of the Basra operation so as to make the Bush administration's role look as positive as possible. Northram says "analysts here in Washington say that decision revealed Maliki's weaknesses: he pressed ahead without enough military intelligence or troops, giving the US very little notice of his plans. The offensive quickly began to unravel, threatening to undo recent security gains in other parts of Iraq and forcing the US and Britain to help defend Iraqi security forces."
Nothram works hard in this excerpt, pushing the ludicrous idea (lie) that the Maliki offensive was launched without US knowledge of its extent. But she's doing even more here: she posits that the Basra operation ruined all those miraculous security gains of The Surge™. And not only that, it FORCED the US and Britain to help. You've got to hand it to Northam, she packs a lot of BaSra into one little paragraph.
The tone of Northam's piece was a stunner, too. Imperial prerogatives are simply assumed for the US. Northam states that Stephen Biddle of the Council on Foreign Relations "says Crocker and the US military commander in Iraq, General David Petraeus, will have to tell Maliki in unambiguous terms, that the US will not tolerate and similar unilateral actions in the future." And she doesn't flinch a bit as she says, "Wayne White is a former State Department analyst and currently adjunct scholar with the Middle East Institute. White says the US could engineer a coup against Maliki, but it may be better to just let the political process play out..." Could engineer a coup? Echoes of Diem, eh...
The last big accomplishment of Northam's piece is that it not only covers up the stupidity of Bush, Crocker, Cheney, and Petraeus - but it covers up the stunning fact that it is Iran that saved the day in Iraq, essentially pulling the administrations chestnuts from the fire. I'd say that is definitely a defining moment, no?
5 comments:
Stooge-tacular!
The Northam quote you show in the second paragraph summarizes everything I can't stand about NPR News: that 'creative writing' aspect as applied to hard news. It would be one thing if these so-called reporters couched their stories as an essay; that is, as an opinion piece, rather than their audacious presentation that their opinion is in fact - fact. But they don’t. We’re supposed to consume without question, we’re supposed to trust. No wonder we cry ‘propaganda’ so often, huh?
These people are so damn show-offy, yet they attempt to come across as lacking of both ego and/or ulterior motive. Everybody must be after that elusive Pulitzer or Peabody, or Dan Schorr prize. They must be SOOOO jealous of Ari!
I wonder though, just how happy a camp NPR is - if they're all for one and one for all, or is it dog-eat-dog? Everybody on the air is so insufferably nice to each other, it just adds to the boring white bread bleakness of it all. I've said it before, but I get a dreary kick when some NPR-oid signs off with, 'It's a pleasure, Renee (or whomever)', after glorying in some horrible tale of Gazan agony or another Somali bombing to 'get the terrorists'. Since we can't see what these people are doing when they say 'it's been a pleasure', all I can say is that there must be a helluva lot of 'pleasuring' going on. They're all cut from the same cloth, and for all intents and purposes, it's the grayest of washrags.
Larry was my favorite Stooge, but now I'm not so sure.
(Just kidding - the trio would no doubt love the parody.) Moe was always the brains of the outfit, but the bottom line is that skull formation determines all.
Great photoshopping!
PS: They're just about to rip Curly's glasses off so Moe can deliver his famous two-fingered eye poke.
What an insult to the comic genius of Howard, Fine & Howard. Myt, I demand you remove it. (haha, jus' joshin')
(I mean the Stooges had it together better, by comparison)
Of course, we know who the real stooges are!
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