ProgressOhio

OK, enough is enough. You wouldn't think you have to actually argue that the Iraq War is a failed one, but it appears you do. The latest spin on why things are going so well rests not with anything factual or based in ground-level reality, but a flanking attack on the media for their reporting. The biggest beater of that drum in-state is our own Bizzybody blogger. For weeks Tom has gone on and on about how this story or that story doesn't reflect the current reality in Iraq and whines incessantly like a pansy conservative would about how centcom.mil news is not being covered by Google News. As if we'd want to read about year-old purple fingers during a week which saw some of the worst violence ever.

Fiddling while Baghdad burns. Indeed.

Eric Boehlert, in his recent column, points out the real goal of all of this:

As American Prospect blogger Greg Sargent noted, "Malkin and her compadres are trying to accomplish one thing, and one thing only: They want to staunch the flow of images back to America of President Bush's disastrous war in Iraq." Indeed, censorship via intimidation -- not authentic media criticism -- has always been atop the warbloggers' agenda. (Their main beef with the press is that it exists.)

No amount of breathless agitation about the WORM (worn out reactionary media - a big tip that someone is a warblogger...they love their acronyms) will stem the flow of bad news out of Iraq. What Malkin, Bizzy, and the rest really don't get is that we destablized the entire region through our arrogant actions and ill-advised invasion of Iraq and subsequent policy.

And the terrorists laugh. All the way to the bank, because such destabilization aids in their funding and fires up the hate machine more than ever. Hell, now even Saudi Arabia has thrown their ghutras into the ring of civil war. I guess now that will become one more reason why we must "stay the course".

So the whining and moaning about bad news out of Iraq can continue. The really bad thing is while wingnut warbloggers fiddle over one story of 6 Sunnis burned alive (they were), the rest of Baghdad keeps right on burning. As Boehlert points out, the week around which the Burned Alive/Jamil Hussein story brewed to a frenzy in wingnutville the following also happened:

* Mosul -- Police said they recovered 14 bodies, including three women, in different areas of Mosul, 390 km (240 miles) north of Baghdad. [November 22]
* Baghdad -- Up to six car bombs killed 133 people in a Shi'ite militia stronghold in Baghdad and a further 201 people were wounded, police said. [November 23]
* Baghdad -- Baghdad police recovered 30 unidentified bodies around the capital in the 24 hours to late Friday, an Interior Ministry source said. [November 24]
* Baghdad -- Baghdad police retrieved 30 bodies of victims of violence on Friday and 17 on Saturday, an Interior Ministry source said. [November 25]
* Baquba -- Police in Baquba, 65 km (40 miles) north of Baghdad, found the bodies of 25 people, including seven teenagers blindfolded and each with a single gunshot wound to the head, in various parts of Baquba in the past 24 hours, police said. [November 26]
* Baghdad -- Baghdad police retrieved 39 bodies in the 24 hours to Monday evening. [November 27]

Care to take a stab at how many of these are fake stories Tom? Nah, probably not. But just keep on banging on that WORM drum brother! Keep on bangin'!

Here is the really sad thing about the wingnut obsession about this story and their desire to paint a broad brush over all media war coverage:

The story of the burnings has gotten far more attention in the United States than in Iraq, where vicious torture and death are sadly commonplace. Dozens of Iraqi citizens are gunned down in their cars, dragged from their homes or blown apart in public places every single day.

So, yes, I'm sure Tom and the others got the talking point and we'll continue to see it again and again. What they don't realize is the more they do it, the deeper a credibility hole they dig.

We have lost the Iraq war and are fast losing stability in the broader Middle East. War on Terror? There never was one.