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| Fifth Column |
| WaPo Changes Direction: Sez Bush is Confused |
| 2005-08-12 |
| The Bush administration has sent seemingly conflicting signals in recent days over the duration of the U.S. deployment to Iraq, openly discussing contingency plans I think the MSM is the one "discussing" the plan, to Bush, it was just a contingencey plan to withdraw as many as 30,000 of 138,000 troops by spring, then cautioning against expectations of any early pullout. As he has been doing every time the MSM asks "Well, when are we gonna withdraw?" Finally yesterday, President Bush dismissed talk of a drawdown as just "speculation and rumors" and warned against "withdrawing before the mission is complete." Do I sense a certain consistency here in the Bush position? If the public was left confused, thanks to the MSM, and especially the WaPo it may be no more unsure than the administration itself, as some government officials involved in Iraq policy privately acknowledge. The shifting scenarios reflect the uncertain nature of the mission and the ambiguity of what would constitute its successful completion. For all the clarity of Bush's vow to stay not one day longer than needed, the muddled reality is that no one can say exactly when that will be. Pretty clear to me, but you guys have to keep muddying the waters, to make it "muddled". The events of the past week have brought home once again the difficulties confronting the president as he prosecutes what polls suggest is an increasingly unpopular war. The WaPo advances!With surging raging, escalating, bigger than any time since the day-before-yesterday violence claiming more U.S. forces on the ground in Iraq and the angry mother of a dead soldier camping out near his ranch in Texas, Bush plainly cannot count on indefinite public patience. This is NEWS? Administration officials have all but given up any hope of militarily defeating the insurgents with U.S. forces, instead aiming only to train and equip enough Iraqi security forces to take over the fight themselves. So now we spin the original plan to make it look like a change in the plan, since unnamed "Administration Officials" have given up hope. I can't take anymore. See the rest at the link. |
| Posted by:Bobby |
| #6 The fundamental issue is the press is stupid and ignorant. They are stupid in that they expect there to be one hard and fast solution and date that you can nail to the floor now, and ignore any and all changes afterward. They are ignorant in that they don't realize its the job of a good military leader to have plans for contingencies - all the possible ones, and then deveop the plans further for the probable ones, and then for the highest 1-3 probabilities (and the branches they can evolve into), you develop a plan in detail. Then you shape the battlefield, and implement the plan, with the contengencies in the back pocket. Why doesnt the press understnad this? Its plain common sense. Businesses practice it all the time. Doctors do it with treatment of serious chronic illnesses. Investors do it if they are smart. I guess journalists are the dregs of university graduates in terms of reasoning capability and though cpacity. |
| Posted by: OldSpook 2005-08-12 22:07 |
| #5 That's not surprising, lh. |
| Posted by: Pappy 2005-08-12 16:21 |
| #4 somehow the admins also left Bill Kristol and the Weekly Standard confused as well. Amazing the places liberal MSM memes show up. |
| Posted by: liberalhawk 2005-08-12 14:19 |
| #3 You'd think in year 5 the Big Media would start to catch on to that whole "say what you mean, mean what you say" thing. |
| Posted by: eLarson 2005-08-12 12:21 |
| #2 tu, another grand, evil, Rovian plot? Personally, I think it's that the MSM (especially inside the beltway) don't understand what I call "Plain English." You know, the kind where you do what you say you're gonna do, come he!! or high-water! And, usually when the MSM asks "When are we gonna leave," they usually mean the whole kit & kaboodle, not just a 30k troop drawdown. But, who am I to question the WaPo's intentions...not like I'm a big city news editor who's already pointed out 3-4 errors in the snips above alone, eh? |
| Posted by: BA 2005-08-12 09:12 |
| #1 He might be confused. Then again, he might just like fucking with the media's heads. |
| Posted by: tu3031 2005-08-12 08:39 |