Iraq War: More of the Same (which the Republicans promise to give us for the next 2 1/2 years)

Hey, a follow-up story has appeared on something I mentioned on Monday: Crackdown in Baghdad ineffective, gen. admits by Richard Sisk New York Daily News 07/11/06.

The nearly month-old push by more than 70,000 Iraqi and U.S. troops to bring order to Baghdad has failed to curb the explosion of revenge killings across the capital, a U.S. general said yesterday.

"I think everybody had thought that perhaps it might be improving more than it is at this point," said Army Maj. Gen. William Caldwell.

"We have to bring the level of violence down, there's no question," said Caldwell, chief spokesman for the U.S.-led coalition. "It's not at all where we want it to be yet."

The latest Baghdad peacekeeping effort began with fanfare June 14, a day after a surprise visit by President Bush. (my emphasis)

Remember all the "fanfare" over this? Remember how for the last 3 1/2 weeks, every story about the horrific violence in Baghdad mentioned something like, "in spite of the major crackdown under way in Baghdad ..."?

No? Me neither.

I did a double-take when I saw it mentioned in passing in an article by Anthony Cordesman. Juan Cole has mentioned it a couple of times at his blog, wondering why almost no news stories were saying anything about it.

It's started to take on a weird sense of normality when we see that, once again, the mainstream press fails to ask the most obvious of questions about the Iraq War. Remember how the Katrina catastrophe made the press aggressive and critical again? Yeah, I thought it was an entertaining claim, too - or it would be, if the consequences of their neglect weren't so serious.

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