Glenn Greenwald interviewed The Brookings Institutes' very own war hawk and master propagandist Michael O'Hanlon and he admitted that the military planned his whole trip and he did not reveal pertinent information in their big op-ed in the NY Times. He should have his bobble head card stripped for life. What say you, Joe Klein? Is this ethical? "Contact info is here..."
But the far greater deceit involves the trip itself and the way it was represented -- both by Pollack/O'Hanlon as well as the excited media figures who touted its significance and meaning. From beginning to end, this trip was planned, shaped and controlled by the U.S. military -- a fact inexcusably concealed in both the Op-Ed itself and virtually every interview the two of them gave. With very few exceptions, what they saw was choreographed by the U.S. military and carefully selected for them.
The entire trip -- including where they went, what they saw, and with whom they spoke -- consisted almost entirely of them faithfully following what O'Hanlon described as "the itinerary the D.O.D. developed."
But to establish their credibility as first-hand witnesses, O'Hanlon and Pollack began their Op-Ed by claiming, in the very first sentence: "VIEWED from Iraq, where we just spent eight days meeting with American and Iraqi military and civilian personnel. . . . " Yet the overwhelming majority of these "Iraqi military and civilian personnel" were ones hand-picked for them by the U.S. military
Please read the full post. It's excellent. Bill Kristol went to Iraq at the same time for eight days also. Smell something? We're talking about war and death here. Lives are at stake and they go on an Iraq war junket to spread propaganda to the American people (sponsored by the military) and helped by articles like this one that the AP put out for the sole purpose of getting the approval ratings higher on this war in the polls (something Bush says he doesn't look at) and try to force Congress to keep funding this Middle East Neocon disaster...There is no justification for this lack of integrity. Greenwald also documents that these two fellows are no “war critics” like they’ve been portrayed in our media circus.
Historically the Pentagon has been able to control the war messaging with the help of our media so this is nothing new. Pollack/O'Hanlon are the latest willing pawns in that machine. Check out the movie "War Made Easy," to get a better handle on this immense problem.
Greg Sargent: "Iraq Travel Companion Of O'Hanlon, Pollack Reveals: I'm Much More Pessimistic About Iraq"
Correction: I removed a Gen. Odierno reference so that the focus would remain on O'Hanlon/Pollack and I already posted about him earlier.
