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My personal musings about anything that gets on my radar screen--heavily dominated by politics.

2006-03-08

Calling a Spade a Spade

SecDef Rumsfeld is never quite as good as when he's confronting the press.

As he did this morning [courtesy Powerline]:

From what I've seen thus far, much of the reporting in the U.S. and abroad has exaggerated the situation, according to General Casey. The number of attacks on mosques, as he pointed out, had been exaggerated. The number of Iraqi deaths had been exaggerated. The behavior of the Iraqi security forces had been mischaracterized in some instances. And I guess that is to say nothing of the apparently inaccurate and harmful reports of U.S. military conduct in connection with a bus filled with passengers in Iraq.

Interestingly, all of the exaggerations seem to be on one side. It isn't as though there simply have been a series of random errors on both sides of issues. On the contrary, the steady stream of errors all seem to be of a nature to inflame the situation and to give heart to the terrorists and to discourage those who hope for success in Iraq.

And then I notice today that there's been a public opinion poll reporting that the readers of these exaggerations believe Iraq is in a civil war -- a majority do, which I suppose is little wonder that the reports we've seen have had that effect on the American people.

It strikes me that all of this is true, and all of it is calculated. So my question is this: if you know they're hostile to you, and you know you'll never get a fair shake from them, then why do they continue to have access? It's the press office that gives out credentials--try revoking a few on a temporary basis and see if the message gets across.

Posted by: Michael / 3/08/2006 12:54:00 AM

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