Never Good Enough

Look, I have a number of complaints about Bush's mishandling of the Iraq War, which has certainly cost hundreds, perhaps thousands of unnecessary U.S. deaths, and squandering of huge amounts of money. (The only consolation is that President Gore would probably have squandered the same number of lives and money, but in American cities, not Iraq.) I haven't let loyalty to him prevent me from giving detailed and specific criticisms of how this war has been fought. But I don't use good news (as there has now been quite a bit) as an excuse for more bashing, like this absurd story about how Iraqi undertakers are now being hit hard by the falling violent death rate.

Joe Klein has an article in the October 25, 2007 Newsweek that is so typical of how the mainstream news media look for ways to turn good news into bad news:

Remember this name: Amar Al-Hakim. He is 36 years old, the heir apparent to one of Iraq's two leading Shi'ite dynasties, and a few weeks ago in Ramadi, he did something quite remarkable. He went to meet and make peace with the more than 100 Sunni sheiks who led the movement to kick al-Qaeda in Iraq out of Anbar province. He was accompanied by the leader of his family's militia, the Badr Organization, which was lethally anti-Sunni until recently. The Hakim delegation was ferried to the meeting in Black Hawk helicopters by the U.S. military. "It was quite a scene," a U.S. military officer who was present told me. "Amar went through a receiving line, hugging each of the Sunni sheiks, and then he made a speech: 'We are not Shi'ites. We are not Sunnis. We are all Iraqis, and we must reconcile.' It was a showstopper. He has a real presence. He and the host, Sheik Ahmed [Abu Risha], went and prayed together, which was a big deal symbolically. Then there was a 'goat grab'--a feast--and an agreement to keep meeting."

The Ramadi goat grab may turn out to be a significant moment in the stabilization of Iraq ... or, since this is Iraq, maybe not. It is certainly a sign that the U.S. military mission is continuing to make progress. The level of attacks against U.S. forces has fallen dramatically across the country. There have been days, in recent weeks, when even Baghdad approached a tolerable level of urban violence and criminality. "And the Ramadi meeting wasn't at all unique," a senior U.S. diplomat told me. "You've had mass meetings of tribal leaders from Anbar and Karbala provinces," which are the Sunni and Shi'ite heartlands, respectively. "The governors of those provinces were literally building trenches on their border, and they are now meeting regularly. You had the highest-ranking Sunni politician in the country, Tariq al-Hashemi, go to Najaf to meet with the leading Shi'ite cleric, Grand Ayatullah Ali Husaini Sistani. All of this would have been unthinkable only a few months ago."

Then there's a "when is it all going to fall apart" paragraph and a "why aren't the troops all out of there yet" sentence. Then:

George W. Bush has abdicated his control over the military mission and seems boggled by the political side of the Iraqi equation. He has lashed himself to the inept, unrepresentative government of Nouri al-Maliki but seems powerless to influence that government's actions. Bush's Iraq poster boys, General David Petraeus and Ambassador Ryan Crocker, are doing a wonderful job but lack the rank to make strategic regional policy. The Administration was so inept in dealing with Turkey that its designated mediator, retired General Joseph Ralston, recently quit in frustration. Bush's refusal to engage the Iranians has left a clear field for Russian mini-czar Vladimir Putin to move in and build an alliance. The Secretary of State is chasing an Israeli-Palestinian chimera at a moment when a burst of high-level U.S. diplomatic pressure might actually make a difference in Iraq.

And if Bush were strongarming the al-Maliki government, Klein would be complaining about a refusal to allow Iraqi democracy to develop. And of course, the Turkey problem couldn't be in some way because the Democratically controlled Congress passed a resolution that seems designed to create a problem with Turkey. If Secretary Rice were not chasing "an Israeli-Palestinian chimera" the complaint would be that the Bush Administration is just too focused on Iraq, ignoring the larger Middle East problem.

Klein should just admit that he wants a Democrat in there, so that future Supreme Courts will be pro-choice, pro-same sex marriage, pro-euthanasia, and anti-gun. It would be more honest than articles like this.