On to Victory with Petraeus

In his interview with General Petraeus this morning, Steve Inskeep says, "General Petraeus' job is to deal with many gunmen, and car bombers, and militias, and political deadlock among Iraqi leaders."

Notice what Inskeep doesn't include in what Petraeus "has to deal with": four years of US heavy casualty air bombing, publicized torture and sexual predation in US run Iraqi prisons, the destruction of cities such as Fallujah, the corruption of the CPA, cultural ignorance and stupidity from the White House on down, etc. Kind of undermines the "mission," eh?

But if you think the US is the blameless "good guy" in Iraq, if you think that the US can "win"in Iraq, and if you think the US mission of Iraq is noble then you'll find no fault with the Petraeus' interview. This is how NPR news always frames the Iraq war; they may feature critiques of the planning and execution of the war, but never question the right of the US to intervene, invade and/or occupy countries in the Middle East. Within this lopsided frame, Inskeep did a "good" interview, asking Petraeus about the lack of enough troops to fit even his own ideas of strategy and asking him how he sees it ending. But that's it.