It’s not ‘news from Iraq’ if it’s over a year old

December 27, 2006

National Review’s Cliff May published this comment today from an unnamed Marine in Iraq.

[M]orale among our guys is very high. They not only believe that they are winning, but that they are winning decisively. They are stunned and dismayed by what they see in the American press, whom they almost universally view as against them. The embedded reporters are despised and distrusted. They are inflicting casualties at a rate of 20-1 and then see shit like “Are we losing in Iraq” on TV and the print media. For the most part, they are satisfied with their equipment, food and leadership. Bottom line though, and they all say this, is that there are not enough guys there to drive the final stake through the heart of the insurgency, primarily because there aren’t enough troops in-theater to shut down the borders with Iran and Syria.

In other words, here’s a Marine who, coincidentally, is repeating the exact talking points approved by the White House and supporters of the war. Sure, the Marine’s reported perspective seems completely at odds with everything we know about the crisis — indeed, it even conflicts with some of the president’s own concessions last week — but the National Review was fortunate enough to hear from a soldier willing to tell the magazine what Cliff May wanted to hear.

Except, there’s a catch. The nearly identical text from May’s NR post was part of a widely disseminated email from over a year ago. Worse, there were slight deviations in the original text in 2005, which made it difficult to confirm its authenticity.

As Justin Rood put it, “Despite a civil war and mounting body counts on all sides, the National Review folks can still find good news coming out of Iraq. Too bad it’s over a year old and of questionable provenance.”

Oops.

“They are inflicting casualties at a rate of 20-1…”

Ah, guys, the point is to bring peace and stability to Iraq, not to wipe out the population. Killing 60,000 Iraqis is just not going to help.

And Marines imagine themselves a higher order of mankind.

  • The war in Iraq is a 21st century war. Back in the 20th century, wars were primarily about territory and killing more of your enemy. Today’s wars are about “heart and minds,” and from that standpoint, we are clearly losing in Iraq–from the lack of security to the importing of fuel from Kuwait to the broken electricity grid.

  • I think the new defnition of orginal writing is that it doesn’t generate snippets when you plug it into Google book search.

  • Hhrrrmmm….What would Michelle Malkin have to say about an unconfirmed source from Iraq? Scratch that, we know what she said about a confirmed source from Iraq. What would she say about an anonymous source that might be from Iraq?

    This letter is absolute bull until proven otherwise. I can understand a marine maintaining anonymity when voicing a controversial opinion, but when parroting the CnC’s talking points, line by line?

    Show us the letter Cliffy boy, or come clean. Would you rather be known as a fool or a liar?

  • I wonder – is this getting a second life. Did it lie low for a while and then get revived – and that is why we are seeing it again? It is not like the NRO idiot couldn’t have done a google search and figured out this email was over year old and so the content which was sketchy due to a lack of provenance, was even more suspect for being very out of date. Maybe he should remember that saying about not believeing everything you read.

    Wish snopes.com would do something on this one. – unless they did and I just missed it.

  • Hahaha! I really should click the link before commenting. This is a doozie

    They use handheld GPS units for navigation and “Googleearth” for overhead views of our positions.

    This line completely exposes the fraud. At face value, it sounds good – even scary. But when you consider it’s implications, it’s patently ridiculous.

    Obviously, the brave 101rst keyboard commander who thought up this drivel believes that Google Earth provides live global images, when in fact they are archived photographs. You would get more accurate and updated information by simply listening for tanks.

  • Haik,

    I can see that you’re very proud of your ability to call people mean names on the Internet, but I’m not sure that calling someone with whom you disagree “A F U C K I N G I D I O T” while failing to even attempt to engage in a discussion that rises above the third-grade level is really the kind of help the progressive movement needs. But hey, maybe Jim Robbins only needs to be told how “stupid” and “retarded” he is by random bloggers a finite number of times before he sees the light and joins the Green Party. Thanks for doing your part.

  • I started reading the quote before I read the subject line (teach me not to take shortcuts ) and I had this eerie feeling I’d read it before. By the time I got to the “embedded reporters”, I knew it couldn’t be current; they stopped allowing reporters to “embed” and travel with the army about a year ago, because the reporters were not reporting enough candy-and-flowers-strewn streets. (though the official “line”was it was for the reporters’ safewty.Which may have played some role too; enough of them had been targets).

    I’m pretty sure I originally read that quote in WashPo on a Sunday aeons ago (at least a 1000 fewer US troops dead)…

  • JD, you’ve got to forgive Haik. According to his own site (ya call that greasy mess a blog, Haik? C’mon, now…), he’s 33 years old and has had something on the order of 50 jobs in the past 15-or-so years. That’s roughly one job every 112 days. Such socioeconomic instability could easily cause someone to revert to child-like behavior….

  • Steve Benen, #11? Steve Moyer?

    Did you read that stupid piece in praise of global warming? The point is National Review sucks.

    I know my site is a greasy mess, but yes- technichally I would have to call it a blog. It has literally dozens of readers in any given week, and is very unique and legitimate. Thanks for visiting.

    Thanks also for/to the prolific Carpetbagger Report. Always the freshest, and one of the last not to be blocked by the network filters at job #50.

  • More stage-managing to prepare the ground for the surge Bush desperately hopes will bring some kind of positive result – anything would do. And some indications suggest the American people will fall for it yet again, like Charlie Brown believing that THIS TIME Lucy won’t pull the football aside and let him fall on his ass. That’s if the puff pieces in MSM sources (“…the American public is getting fed up with waiting for results”. Getting???) can be credited.

  • The IED:
    Lately, they are much more sophisticated “shape charges” (Iranian) specifically designed to penetrate armor. Fact: Most of the ready made IED’s are supplied by Iran, who is also providing terrorists (Hezbollah types) to train the insurgents in their use and tactics.

    Technically, it’s “SHAPED charges”, but that’s nothing compared to “ready made IEDs are supplied by Iran”. Aren’t IEDs “IMPROVISED explosive device”, in other words, whatever you can scrape together? Wouldn’t a “ready made IED” just be an “ED”? Or a “bomb”?

    And you know there’s some explosives plant manager in Tehran screaming “Okay, who’s the fucking genius who stamped ‘Made in Iran’ on the ready made IEDs going to Iraq?”
    Or maybe the Marines found the UPS shipping tag with the IED.

    “For the most part, they are satisfied with their equipment, food and leadership.”

    As a vet, I must reply to this comment with a heart-felt “Bull-fucking-shit”.

    Equipment? Which, the stuff getting clogged with sand and dust, or the shit deadlined waiting for repairs?

    Food? FOOD?? I tell you, nothing screams “mmm, good” more than MREs and cold tray packs 27/7. I just couldn’t get enough of Chicken ala King and Rice with Beef Chunks. For 5 days straight.
    I still can’t eat any kind of creamy chicken or white rice.

    Leadership. No point going there. Ask anyone overseas if they want Rummy back.

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