The Surge and the NYT

Good post from The Jawa Report http://mypetjawa.mu.nu/



September 03, 2008
Then & Now: NYT Got the Surge Wrong...Again, and Again, and Again

Here's the NYT two days ago: U.S. Hands Off Pacified Anbar, Once Heart of Iraq Insurgency

Barack Obama could not be reached for comment, but did release a statement saying that making such foreign policy decisions like that required for the surge to be implemented was "above his pay grade."

Noted foreign policy strategists and military experts Maureen Down, Frank Rich, Paul Krugman, Nick Kristof and the all-knowing ed board itself have plenty of crow to eat. Good job by Eric Posner at the Volokh Conspiracy for rounding these gems up:

The only real question about the planned "surge" in Iraq — which is better described as a Vietnam-style escalation — is whether its proponents are cynical or delusional. -- Paul Krugman, NYT, 1/8/07

There is nothing ahead but even greater disaster in Iraq. -- NYT Editorial, 1/11/07

What anyone in Congress with half a brain knows is that the surge was sabotaged before it began. -- Frank Rich, NYT, 2/11/07

Keeping troops in Iraq has steadily increased the risk of a bloodbath. The best way to reduce that risk is, I think, to announce a timetable for withdrawal and to begin a different kind of surge: of diplomacy. -- Nicholas Kristof, NYT, 2/13/07

W. could have applied that to Iraq, where he has always done only enough to fail, including with the Surge -- Maureen Dowd, NYT, 2/17/07

The senator supported a war that didn't need to be fought and is a cheerleader for a surge that won't work. -- Maureen Dowd, NYT, 2/24/07

Now the ''surge'' that was supposed to show results by summer is creeping inexorably into an open-ended escalation, even as Moktada al-Sadr's militia ominously melts away, just as Iraq's army did after the invasion in 2003, lying in wait to spring a Tet-like surprise. -- Frank Rich, NYT, 3/11/07

Victory is no longer an option in Iraq, if it ever was. The only rational objective left is to responsibly organize America’s inevitable exit. That is exactly what Mr. Bush is not doing and what the House and Senate bills try to do. -- NYT Editorial, 3/29/07
We tried to warn these partisan liberal Democrat hacks that history has a strange way of making fools of such pinheads and their "commentary" during wartime. We were right. The NYT was wrong, along with their candidate Barack Obama and Joe Biden. McCain was right when Bush was wrong, and that's the bottom line.

Farking morons. Will these incorrect opinions and disinformation be corrected en masse on the corrections blotter, NYT? Pinch? Keller? Hoyt? Anybody listening over there?

Let this be the evidence you trot out when people tell you the NYT is the "paper of record." It sure is - a record of EPIC FAIL.

ht: Insty