The Washington Post has done as fine a job of any Old Media outlet in burying good news from Iraq, including regarding the “surge” strategy, deep inside the paper or in the 17th paragraph of a story, but at least they are willing to admit the truth editorially. From Sunday’s op-ed page:
NEWS COVERAGE and debate about Iraq during the past couple of weeks have centered on the alleged abuses of private security firms like Blackwater USA. Getting such firms into a legal regime is vital, as we’ve said. But meanwhile, some seemingly important facts about the main subject of discussion last month — whether there has been a decrease in violence in Iraq — have gotten relatively little attention. A congressional study and several news stories in September questioned reports by the U.S. military that casualties were down. Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton (D-N.Y.), challenging the testimony of Gen. David H. Petraeus, asserted that “civilian deaths have risen” during this year’s surge of American forces.
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This doesn’t necessarily mean the war is being won. U.S. military commanders have said that no reduction in violence will be sustainable unless Iraqis reach political solutions — and there has been little progress on that front. Nevertheless, it’s looking more and more as though those in and outside of Congress who last month were assailing Gen. Petraeus’s credibility and insisting that there was no letup in Iraq’s bloodshed were — to put it simply — wrong.
Read the whole editorial at the above link.
It is indeed a sad comment on the state of American journalism that we find it noteworthy when a major newspaper recognizes an obvious truth.
Naturally, as usual, good news for America = bad news for Democrats. Senator Clinton is no doubt researching how her multiplicity of positions on Iraq, Iran, terror, & etc. can be further “nuanced” . . .
