Evidence
Kevin Drum finds that the O'Hanlon's didn't supply us with real evidence to support their claims. Frankly, I don't understand why the media didn't attack this aspect of their war hawking report when they got the red carpet treatment.
I think it's fair to ask O'Hanlon and Pollack for more evidence of progress than just regurgitation of talking points from the military brass they traveled with. Whining about how unfairly they're being treated is a poor substitute for the healthy skepticism they should have displayed in the first place.
Leila Fadel reported earlier this month for McClatchey that "U.S. officials say the number of civilian casualties in the Iraqi capital is down 50 percent. But U.S. officials declined to provide specific numbers, and statistics gathered by McClatchy Newspapers don't support the claim."
Does it seem plausible that the Department of Defense has really solid, favorable data about its own activities that it's keeping hidden from public scrutiny? Not to me.
I seem to remember that Cordesman, who was also along on that trip, said it had been very embedded.
SOP for Bush cheerleaders and assorted neo-nuts. Make shit up and repeat it over and over with an air of authority until some people (ie your knucklehead base) believe you...
"Ev-ee-dence? We don't need no steeking ev-ee-dence!!!"
Since when did any of these folks need any evidence of anything to say what they say???
What do you expect? Reality has a well-known liberal bias.
What real evidence could they use? This administration, and their puppets, simply tells us that there is progress, and knows that most of the MSM will not challenge them, and that the American citizens are on the other side of the world and don't see any of what is going on, so we only have their word to go on. The problem is that their word doesn't mean much, so they keep repeating their talking points, and hope we will just give in.
our govt. has become, when it comes to honesty with it's citizens, more like communism, germany under hitler and italy under mussolini. there is just no lie that bushco won't tell the American citizens, in order to spew it's reichwing proparganda.
the bushco/cheney corporate friends are bleeding our National Treasury to death.
shit-for-brains is delusional and cheney is a socio-path.
Redemption for O'Hanlon and Pollack could be as simply as another Iraq visit - this time starting at the Syrian border and ending at Bahgdad.
Evidence?!?!
Did they need real evidence to start their war?
The world they live in--and are forcing upon us--is immune to evidence. Say-so is all.
Members of the media almost never ask for evidence. The military is constantly claiming that they have irrefutable evidence of one thing or another, and the media always takes that claim at face value. You'd think that after the lies told by government before the Iraq war they would be a little skeptical. Chances are most of that irrefutable evidence is questionable if not refutable. It's not just one news organization either. They are all gather together in a news conference and not a single one will ask the most obvious of questions. They have become a part of the Washington status quo. No one wants to rock the boat.
Frankly, I don’t understand why the media didn’t attack this aspect of their war hawking report when they got the red carpet treatment.
80% of the media is owned by 5 global corporations. These firm either directly or indirectly benefit financially from the neocon agenda. Even if the firms themselves don't directly reap financial rewards from the military-industrial complex, the board of directors and other key stakeholders do.
Is this really such a hard concept to wrap your mind around?
The sole basis upon which decisions to release or conceal information are made by the Bushevik administration is whether it helps or hurts the administration.
They will classify, conceal or alter information that they consider harmful, and will prohibit agencies from communicating with the press, the public, or even Congress.
National security is only used as an excuse to classify negative information or to conceal wrongdoing. When they consider it helpful to themselves, the G-Dub mob will release anything, including the names of covert agents and sensitive intelligence data.
If they aren't releasing data, it's bad.
In other words, John, those that own the MSM have decided that their holdings are more profitable "catapulting the propaganda" than being a source of legitimate news.
Steve Benen writes:
The AP pulled together some numbers of its own.
Kevin Drum summarized nicely the principal conclusions of the AP investigation:
When I was in journalism school at UC Berkeley, I did a ride-along with the Ensenada Police and wrote a somewhat glowing report about how hard the department was trying to modernize. My teacher refused to include it in the magazine we published, saying I swallowed the department propaganda line too uncritically. It's a shame the NYT doesn't apply similar standards as my teacher.
Also, zero, nil, nada, nothing, zilch, null, substantive lack of, absent, dearth, deficit, paucity, scarcity, deficiency, inadequate, insufficient, scant... evidence of any political progress.
Why? Bush Co's end game is to have the political and legal framework in which to privatize Iraqi natural resources. Oil ministry recently arrest leaders of oil worker strike and used Saddam's "Decree 51" to ban the oil workers' union. Some democracy.
I thought they didn't keep track of civilian/Iraqi casualties, so how do they all of a sudden know it's down??
I smell a nasty pile of BS.....
I think you understand it, John. I think we all do...
Hanlon and Pollack wanted to be thought of as "tough" by the Hewittites. Evidence be damned it was rapture time
What the hell is chimpy winning?
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