Send in the Clowns…
Right on cue, NY Times stenographer reporter Michael Gordon pops up to tell us that really, there HAS been some progress in Iraq. You have to squint really hard and click your ruby slippers together to see it, but it’s there, I tellsya, it’s THERE!
Still, the trend is similar: both the American and the Iraqi reports note a roughly 50 percent drop in the number of civilians who have been killed since the end of 2006. According to Iraqi government data, the number of civilians nationwide who died as a result of violent causes dropped to about 2,000 in August from about 4,000 in December 2006. American military statistics shows that the number of civilian deaths declined to 1,582 in August from 2,989 in December.
I love how the escalation, which was supposed to buy time for the Iraqi political parties to work out their differences (which they haven’t) has become an all-purpose strategy to reduce violence in our 51st state.
When President Bush announced in January his decision to send more forces to Iraq, his commanders outlined a new strategy. The goal was to protect the Iraqi public against attacks from insurgents and militias, not merely to hold the line while responsibility for security was being transferred to the Iraqis. The main focus was Baghdad.
Way to move the goalposts Mikey.
The essential problem with this article of course is that Michael Gordon is not a trustworthy reporter, as even his own employers admit. The fact of the matter is that Michael Gordon is an outright liar: I wouldn’t trust him to read me the menu at Burger King. Since he’s been busted on multiple occasions for stretching to truth to serve his preconceptions, why should I, or anyone else for that matter, believe a thing he says? It’s for this reason that I didn’t even finish Gordon’s front-page story this morning: a reporter is measured by his/her accuracy and ability to convey the truth. Once that credibility is gone, there’s no getting it back.
I believe it was Joe Strummer from The Clash who said of Led Zeppelin, “I just have to look at the album cover to know that it’s crap” (paraphrased). I feel exactly the same about Michael Gordon’s bullshit reporting.
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