(Really) Scoring the Surge
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On the eve of General David Patraeus' testimony before Congress, an emerging critique is worth mentioning.
Due to an increasingly bleak national economy and a spirited presidential contest, interest in the Iraq War is waning. Into this vacuum has slipped a narrative that the president's troop surge strategy is "working." The narrative has been repeated countless times the past three months by the president, members of Congress and political pundits.
The "surge is working" mantra was making in-roads, as evident by a recent Pew poll (hat tip to Huffington Post).
Absent facts, the folks who brought you claims of making their own reality were intent on shaping public opinion, much the way they've been doing for the past five years.
Remember the following classics?
"Disarm Saddam."
"Remove Saddam."
"The end of major combat operations."
"Freedom is on the march."
"The insurgency is in its last throes."
Who could forget them? They have been seared into our national consciousness.
The string of spurious claims, fortunately, has had one positive effect. Namely, they've awakened a healthy level of informed criticism throughout the blogospehere. See this, this, this and this. Or, just read the president's own prescriptions for benchmarks in January 2007 and draw your own conclusions.
The emerging critiques are not a collection of so-called war naysayers. Instead, they are well-researched analyses (some partisan) of surge success legitimacy. As the media cycle fills with stories this week of General Petreaus' testimony, the surge and the Iraq War, it is worth keeping the current claim, and past claims in perspective.
Due to an increasingly bleak national economy and a spirited presidential contest, interest in the Iraq War is waning. Into this vacuum has slipped a narrative that the president's troop surge strategy is "working." The narrative has been repeated countless times the past three months by the president, members of Congress and political pundits.
The "surge is working" mantra was making in-roads, as evident by a recent Pew poll (hat tip to Huffington Post).
Absent facts, the folks who brought you claims of making their own reality were intent on shaping public opinion, much the way they've been doing for the past five years.
Remember the following classics?
"Disarm Saddam."
"Remove Saddam."
"The end of major combat operations."
"Freedom is on the march."
"The insurgency is in its last throes."
Who could forget them? They have been seared into our national consciousness.
The string of spurious claims, fortunately, has had one positive effect. Namely, they've awakened a healthy level of informed criticism throughout the blogospehere. See this, this, this and this. Or, just read the president's own prescriptions for benchmarks in January 2007 and draw your own conclusions.
The emerging critiques are not a collection of so-called war naysayers. Instead, they are well-researched analyses (some partisan) of surge success legitimacy. As the media cycle fills with stories this week of General Petreaus' testimony, the surge and the Iraq War, it is worth keeping the current claim, and past claims in perspective.
