The Surge: Is it Really Going Better Now?

No doubt you've heard a lot of more upbeat, positive news about Iraq lately, especially as it regards the "surge." Having heard such things before, I started paying a little more attention, and was surprised how often two words come up in these stories: O'Hanlon and Pollack.

These are the names of two reporters who, we are assured, are left-leaning "Bush critics," and after a visit to Iraq, have determined this is a war we just might win. That would be good news! But is it true? The most curious thing to me was that it seems to be primarily this one story by these two reporters that is cited as proof. Over and over again. And not just on FOX "News" and The Sean Hannity Show--though they are flogging it particularly hard.

Anyway, I've become jaded and suspicious when it comes to almost any news these days, so I looked into it a little bit. This piece, from Salon.com goes a little deeper. Check it out.

[Excerpt]

The really smart, serious, credible Iraq experts O'Hanlon and Pollack

What is the most vivid and compelling evidence of how broken our political system is? It is that the exact same people who urged us into the war in Iraq, were wrong in everything they said, and issued one false assurance after the next as the war failed, continue to be the same people held up as our Serious Iraq Experts. The exact "experts" to whom we listened in 2002 and 2003 are the same exact establishment "experts" now.

Hence, today we have yet another Op-Ed declaring that We Really Are Winning in Iraq This Time -- this one in the NYT from "liberal" Brookings Institution "scholars" Ken Pollack and Mike O'Hanlon. They accuse war critics of being "unaware of the significant changes taking place," proclaim that "we are finally getting somewhere in Iraq, at least in military terms," and the piece is entitled "A War we Might Just Win."

The Op-Ed is an exercise in rank deceit from the start. . .

Much more (with extensive followups and links) at: Salon.com