Surging Inhumanity

Know what I learned from Guy Raz on Saturday? The Surge™ worked! Ignore the role of ethnic cleansing, and forget about there still being 4+ million refugees and internally displaced persons (and no major improvements in sight), a death squad and human rights abusing regime in place - because, according to Guy Raz, "before the surge in Iraq, we kept hearing that there were no good options for Iraq. This is a choice between bad and worse. But the surge seemed to have worked out."

Well, how about that. Everybody thought the outcome could only be bad or worse - but the miraculous Surge™ turned out to be GRRREEEAAAT! It's not really surprising since NPR has been hawking the Surge™ , and Raz was talking to one of NPR's favorite Bushista military men, Jack Keane. Raz does seem to be feeling the love keanely when he not only compliments him on the Surge™ but also on his strategic genius:

"Jack Keane, the counterinsurgency plan you wrote for Iraq worked at the time. You were instrumental in getting David Petraeus installed as the ground commander there. Do you think that kind of plan could work in Afghanistan?" (kiss, kiss)

Hmmm, somebody must be thinking about a 2012 Petraeus-Keane dream team...with you know who for White House Press Secretary...

Some Rather Significant Enablers

Steve Inskeep merged with Ret. General Jack Keane on Morning Edition Friday to talk about the Basra offensive in Iraq. Surging General Keane had this to say:

"the Iraqis wanted to do this by themselves and I can understand our commanders certainly letting them go ahead and give it a try, but I suspect that at a minimum we'll probably have to provide some rather significant enablers to assist them...."

He might as well have said, "the Pentagon would like to handle all the reporting out of Iraq, but since we have to pretend that we have a vigorous free press in this country, I suspect at a minimum they'll have to rely on some rather significant enablers like you and Robert Siegel..."

There was no mention given of Keane's extreme Bush-right positions and his affiliation with the militarist American Enterprise Institute (AEI). Needless to say, there were no dissenting opinions raised about the role of the US in Iraq and in this particular series of events. Inskeep might as well have been Keane's AEI office assistant with these kinds of questions:

• "Were you impressed with Iraq's preparations?"
• "Are you saying...al-Maliki had the right idea, to try to grab control of this very important southern city...but may not have coordinated it well with the American assets."
• "OK, so are American troops needed then in Basra?"

With hard questions like this, is it any surprise that Keane feels comfortable making the following unchallenged assertions:

• "He's got the right idea, the execution I think may be a little wanting...they can still get this right as time evolves...war is a trial and error...they're in the lead here and we're in support."
• "...what works best is when US forces and Iraqi forces are working side by side together, that kind of partnership that has certainly produced the rather dramatic results...."
• "...the entire [Iraqi] military - though it's made significant progress, and I'm encouraged by how much progress they've made...."

Warm Fuzzy Counterinsurgency

Friday's ATC was especially bad, so one more critique. Tom Bowman (NPR's Pentagon spokesperson reporter) profiles (i.e. provides a glowing assessment) of Lt. Gen. David Petraeus who is set to take over command of all U.S. forces in Iraq.

What is especially misleading about this feature are the assertions made about counterinsurgency:
(Bowman): "Retired Army General Jack Keane says Petraeus understands how to work with the local population and encourage them to break with insurgents – the essence of what the military calls counter insurgency."
(Keane) says that Petraeus "clearly understands proven counterinsurgency practices which have got to be put in place."
(Keane): "It’s all about securing the population and it’s not been done, and he [Petraeus] clearly understands how to secure that population."
(Bowman): "Petraeus is no ordinary general he has a PhD from Princeton – his thesis topic: The American Military and the Lessons of Vietnam. He is among those who believe the army after Vietnam forgot how to fight insurgencies. He recently coauthored a new army manual on that topic."

In theory, some of the manual sounds reasonable and even humane. But the record of US counterinsurgency is anything but reasonable and humane. As Matthew Yglesias points out at TPM Cafe, the "successes" the US has had with counterinsurgency (as in the Indian Wars or in Central America) have relied on mass killings and brutality.

This glossing over the bloody history of US counterinsurgency practice (versus propaganda) is pretty much par for the course at NPR (previous case in point). This doesn't make it any less reprehensible, especially since the only way to achieve the US imperial goals for the Middle East is probably going to be through more mass slaughter of those who live there.

Follow the Leader

Someone needs to tell NPR News that their role is to question, push, probe and investigate those who wield power - not wait those in power investigate themselves, and then go after the story. Then it's too late. The Army report on the Iraq War is a case in point. Where was NPR in 2002 when the Bushists were ramping up the sell job on the war, in 2003 as the illegal invasion announcement was being made by the Aznar, Blair and Bush troika in the fricking Azores, in 2003 as the first ugly stories of US-British torture began leaking out of Iraq, in 2003 when Jay Garner was shown the door, etc....?

So now we get Andrea Seabrook talking to the discredited Ret. General Sanchez and revealing their racist attitudes toward those killed in the war (see below), and on Monday morning Guy Raz talks to - you guessed it - more discredited generals. Amazingly, one of his primary sources is Robert Scales, the same shill for the Pentagon propaganda program and war profiteer that NPR got busted for, and - despite NPR's promise to reveal such connections - no mention is made of Scales' scandalous background. Raz also talks to surgin' Jack Keane (an AEI and Bush right-winger and a big counterinsurgency cheerleader.)

I'm not suggesting that it's not reasonable to talk to some generals about a self-critical Army report, but it's the same closed bubble that was revealed in the NPR Ombudsman's response the Pentagon propaganda scandal: NPR is dominated by military spokespeople, many of whom have been thoroughly discredited. It's especially ironic that compared to these military/security talking heads, we almost never hear from the people who were right all along on the war - not now, but back in 2002, 2003, 2004, 2005, 2006....