Leftist Bloggers Unleash “Fury” At Good Iraq News
Politico:
Brookings scholars Michael E. O’Hanlon and Kenneth M. Pollack used the most established of platforms, the Op-Ed page of The New York Times, to offer the most politically incorrect of arguments on Monday: “We are finally getting somewhere in Iraq, at least in military terms.”
Their 1,343-word piece, “A War We Just Might Win,” instantly provoked a more furious ideological shootout than has been sparked by any recent development on the battleground or action by the Bush administration.
O’Hanlon told The Politico in an e-mail that he and his co-author were espousing “just temporary optimism,” but their article was treated by the left and right as if it were etched on golden tablets.
“Often Wrong, But Never In Doubt” was the headline on the progressive Think Progress blog of the Center for American Progress Action Fund. The posting, which asserted O’Hanlon and Pollack were “embarking on a public relations tour calling for stay the course,” drew 228 comments. A printout runs 56 pages. Elsewhere, the site accused the two of “shilling.”
In his Interesting Times blog for The New Yorker, George Packer encapsulated the reaction of liberal former war supporters with a piece that suggests the O’Hanlon/Pollack article lacks “a necessary humility.”
On the right, these liberal hawks were hailed as returning heroes. The Web site of the conservative Weekly Standard called the piece “Required Reading,” saying it “conforms well with much of the reporting that has come out of Iraq recently.” A later post attacked those who tried to discredit it.
The rhetorical ruckus ignited by O’Hanlon and Pollack was partly a matter of timing, coming as the White House and military commanders argue that they need several more months to prove their latest strategy is working, while Democrats and even some Republicans in Congress say time will be up in September.
It was also partly due to their provocative conclusions: “Today, morale is high. … [T]hings look much better than before. … [A] new emphasis on micro loans and small-scale projects was having some success where the previous aid programs often built white elephants.”
And partly, the controversy boils down to a matter of identity: Both men have been central combatants in ideological debates over the war since before it started – both wrote supportively of the idea of toppling Saddam Hussein but have been deeply critical of administration tactics and strategy, including the initial Pentagon decision to pare down the U.S. invasion force.
The trip that provoked their new article lasted eight days, and was set up by the U.S. military. It was O’Hanlon’s second visit to Iraq, and Pollack’s third.
Who are they? O’Hanlon, a Brookings senior fellow in Foreign Policy Studies who is one of the nation’s leading civilian authorities on military matters, spearheads the Iraq Index, a continuously updated, 65-page quantification of reconstruction and security in post-Saddam Iraq, from the number of registered cars to the number of Iraqis kidnapped per day.
O’Hanlon, who is the brother-in-law of Politico.com editor-in-chief John F. Harris, testified on Iraq’s future before a House Armed Services subcommittee Tuesday afternoon, where retired Gen. Jack Keane, one of the main proponents and architects of the surge initiative, lauded him as “an objective, astute observer.”
“We have seized the initiative,” Keane said. “Michael O’Hanlon’s article lays that out.”
“I agree with General Keane that trendlines are improving on the military, tactical level” O’Hanlon told the subcommittee. But of the surge strategy, he said: “I’m dubious, despite my generally inspiring visit last week.”
Pollack, who was an Iran-Iraq military analyst for the Central Intelligence Agency from 1988 to 1995 and then joined the National Security Council of President Bill Clinton, is the director of research at the Saban Center for Middle East Policy at Brookings. In 2002, Pollack wrote “The Threatening Storm,” which argued for the invasion of Iraq on the basis of its suspected WMD program and was influential in convincing many skeptics. (In early 2004, he wrote an analysis of where he went wrong for The Atlantic, blaming himself for insufficient skepticism and the Bush administration for how it used intelligence.)
In a May 2007 essay for The New Republic, Pollack argued for a “surge” in American commitment to Iraqi civil defense, writing that a failure to act would “squander” what he called “probably our last chance to save Iraq.”
Asked by e-mail how quickly they reached their conclusions, O’Hanlon replied: “I think we were fairly impressed of trends by the halfway point but that’s just a rough guesstimation. That said, our meetings with Iraqi politicians were at the halfway point and they were discouraging as regards prospects for political accommodation/reconciliation. Again, it’s guarded, measured, and perhaps just temporary optimism that we’re preaching.”
White House official Peter Wehner, who is deputy assistant to the president and director of Strategic Initiatives, sent out a link to the O’Hanlon-Pollack piece at 12:31 a.m. Monday morning, calling it “significant and possibly climate-changing.”
At 2:03 a.m., Rich Lowry posted a link on the National Review’s blog, “The Corner,” calling it “a very significant piece.”
The criticism ranged from mild to scathing. On “Swampland,” the blog of the TIME magazine Washington bureau, Jay Carney wrote: “Stories saying we’re finally turning a corner — like the ones insisting the next sixth months are critical — should be read with immense doses of skepticism.” And Joe Klein — in a post called “What’s Missing in this Column?” — said he agrees “with many, but not all, of the conclusions” and said they devoted too little attention “to the political situation, which is disastrous.”
The piece was mocked with headlines like “The War Is Great,” and several sites complained that the conclusions contradicted the data in O’Hanlon’s “Iraq Index.”
O’Hanlon was unruffled. “I welcome the firestorm,” he said by e-mail. “Hopefully more facts will get into the debate. I know we don’t have any monopoly on reaching bottom-line policy judgments. I just hope I don’t get [people] calling me a propagandist for the administration. Fight with facts, not innuendo, I say!”
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The surge is working. So what’s the beef? A Democratic Congressman from SC was asked” If Gen Petraeous comes back with a positive report in September, How does that affect the Democrats”. Answer from the SC Dem: Well I think as long as the Republicans stand together, it will hurt the Democrats”.
So let me get this straight. In times of war we put our party first and not our country?
Not one word from this Dem Congressman about how great that would be for the morale of the troops or the American people or an indicator of progress in the overall GWOT.
I wonder if FDR and Truman are turning over in the graves right about now.
July 31st, 2007 at 2:58 pmThe anger from the left is based on the fact that they are now invested in failure in Iraq. They want failure; they want loss, they want many, many inconvenient brown people to die in their name in Iraq.
And what do they get out of the deal if this all comes to pass? They get political power, and get to feel superior. Surely that’s worth some genocide.
How utterly disgusting.
July 31st, 2007 at 3:01 pmThe defeatocrats are going nuts about this good news. Check out this video of Murtha calling the progress mentioned in the NYT article as “imaginary” at Hot Air.com:
http://hotair.com/archives/2007/07/31/video-murtha-on-ohanlons-and-pollacks-op-ed-its-an-illusion/
July 31st, 2007 at 3:16 pmAre the Ziplocs being used as a counter-insurgency tactic; so the youngins’ can’t bring IED’s for show-n-tell?
July 31st, 2007 at 3:50 pmJay Carney is the biggest phoney in the world. Joel Klein, he’s so low that snakes crawl at a higher elevation. The difference between people like O’Hanlon and the rest of these MSM mockers is that 1.) O’Hanlon has some integrity and 2.) the others are just about admitting by their articles that they are propagandists and not reporters (reporters try to record objective facts, not twist facts to fit their opinions). These low lifes are showing their true colors–trying to shout down what they don’t like to hear! What scum! What stanlinist propagandists!
July 31st, 2007 at 3:56 pmOh, and another thing: that doofus Murtha is on CNN reacting, saying “it’s an illusion.” He looks and sounds like a blithering idiot. We sure live in weird radical times, when the leading Dem presidential candidates will attend a convention put on and sponsored by the scummiest of left wing media outlets (Kos, who prints pornographic (photoshopped) pics of politicians they don’t agree with), but don’t attend the Democractic Leadership Conference (from which Bill Clinton crafted his 1992/1996 election victories), and dems like Murtha go on TV to denegrate the efforts and results of our troops in war. Amazing! Reminds me of the McGovern era, and we all know what happened to McGovern.
July 31st, 2007 at 4:12 pmThe troop morale is high, why are politicians trying to destroy that? Even CNN echoed the positive results of the surge (so far). Hopefully the trend will continue so those who are totally anti-victory will just shut up and go cry in a corner or something.
July 31st, 2007 at 4:22 pmAfter all the nasty looks, comments, and downright scorn that I have received from those I work with and others - I am going to relax, sit back, and enjoy as I watch them over time eat their words.
The more screaching they do the better! They look and sound like idiots.
Our military men and women are putting those folks to shame and they will continue to do so to the abject horror of the leftists. It would be nice to see some America loving dems step away from the leftists that have hijacked the Democratic party.
July 31st, 2007 at 4:42 pmmad moutha, bela pelosi, dirty harry, “I hate it when the US is doing well”.
July 31st, 2007 at 4:42 pmMisplaced anger by American leftists. Al qaeda must be pleased.
July 31st, 2007 at 5:05 pmRe: John Murtha. He’s a tired old fool who needs to retire. It’s embarassing that this man once served in the Marines. If people want the truth in Iraq I suggest they bypass the MSM (even FOX) and go to “Defend America” at http://www.defendamerica.mil/ or the DoD site “Defense Link” at http://www.defenselink.mil/ .
(and Pat Dollard’s site of course)
July 31st, 2007 at 6:20 pmLeftists never write anything just to make an observation–there is always an ulterior, strategic motive. These guys are trying to signal to their libtard comrades that they have lashing themselves to a sinking ship (PRO-TERROR), and that the sooner they untie themselves the less damage they will suffer. IOW THEY’VE CONCLUDED WE WILL WIN.
THAT is the cause for their fury…They’ve been dreaming for months of a Bush-America debacle, total failure, our military morale ruint…now “all their beautiful eeeeeevil” is going up in flames, along with those strafed and annihilated AQ goons whose vids we love to watch…
BTW, WaPo’s David Ignatius is a real media bigfoot, he dropped tha bomb on them on sunday, too…AAAAAAAAAHHHHH!!!! LOL
July 31st, 2007 at 8:05 pmI love it. Our church youth group sent big ziplocks full of kids stuff over there this spring and they keep asking “what happened and how will we know if the children like them?”
August 1st, 2007 at 12:55 amthey are going to flip when they see this picture.
God bless the USA
(looks better here)
It’s a little disheartening. After seeing what a struggle it is to hold this nation together on this battle front, just think what it’ll take to win on the next few fronts in the next decade or so. But then again, maybe a win or two early on, combined with a few politically correct islamic court victories here at home, will renew our will to fight.
August 1st, 2007 at 5:19 pmKeith Olbermann last week awarded “Worst Person in the World” status to Ken Pollack and Michael O’Hanlon for their positive report on progress in Iraq.
What’s next, Keith? You gonna issue a fatwah?
If Olbermann had the balls to pick up a weapon, he would be just another jihadi.
August 6th, 2007 at 5:39 am