Friday, September 21, 2007

Dying Gasps


As the W Bush monarchy approaches it's end, it continues to practice the art of public relations sleight-of-hand. A remnant of Master Rove--who has moved on to his next target now that this one has been spent--as if on auto-pilot they continue to try and kick the can down the road to run out the clock, thus hoping history will share the blame of the Iraq invasion with another administration.

The latest production, a staged photo-op (and followup revue) to sell the sizzle of the successful "surge" (we LOVE simplistic B&W plots), will no doubt unravel 6 months from now when the institutional memory of the "surge" will give way to Britney or OJ's latest. This can has been kicked out 6 months (give or take) for the last 4+ years and we still don't get it. And it drastically differs from a recent GAO report which concludes quite the opposite.

A respected journalist (for the BBC, possibly the most respected investigative journalistic organization in the world), Greg Palast, has chronicled a raw, honest look at the latest in Iraq. He references another respected BBC employee, cameraman Rick Rowley, and a recent piece he shot in Anbar. He's there; Joe Sixpack (and John McCain) ain't.

The story is in blog form, meaning crude. But take a look at the detail behind the recent Petraeus show. Then look at Rowley's video (below, 2 parts). Lastly, tell me if you fully understand the intricacies of the Iraq puzzle and if you can describe the components of "winning".