Kevin Drum: Petraeus successful in PR surge
I've been thinking about the whole David Petraeus issue for the past couple of days, and what I've been thinking about is how badly the liberal blogosphere and the liberal establishment have been outplayed here. While we've spent the last six months snarking about Friedman Units and complaining aimlessly about spineless Democrats, Petraeus has been slowly and methodically carrying out an extremely disciplined military campaign with a very precise goal: gaining support for David Petraeus and the surge.At this point, one wonders at the credulity of anyone falling for Pentagon PR re: Iraq, no matter how brilliantly executed. Especially when there's so much data available to contradict the spin (like this for example). And that Iraqi national reconciliation still isn't happening. This whole surge thing is like an Enron scheme: hyped to the max, run by smart and ruthless people, but at its core a hollow scheme built on manipulation of perception and doomed to unravel as reality makes its inexorable presence felt. I thought we had learned as a nation to avoid this kind of crap after Vietnam, but apparently we have to learn again.In retrospect, this is hardly a surprise. Petraeus is a four-star general, by all accounts a brilliant man, and a professional student of counterinsurgency. He's keenly aware of the value of both the media and public opinion, and he did what any counterinsurgency expert would have counseled in his circumstances: he unleashed a hearts-and-minds campaign aimed at opinion makers and politicians. For months the military transports to Baghdad have been stuffed with analysts and congress members, and every one of them has gotten a full court press of carefully planned and scripted presentations, tightly controlled visits to favored units, and assorted dollops of "classified" information designed to flatter his guests and substantiate his rosy assessments without the inconvenience of having to defend them in public.
Democrats, we've got to end this now. I know it's to our political advantage to let the hugely unpopular war drag on until November 2008 and then use it to bash Republicans into electoral oblivion. But it's not worth the cost in lives, damage to our military, and collapse of our moral standing in the world community. For God's sake, provide some leadership on this.
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