April 18, 2008
Leftosphere recycles distorted antiwar propaganda from McClatchy [Karl]

A McClatchy story about a study of the Iraq conflict by former senior Pentagon official Joseph Collins is blasted by Collins at the Small Wars Journal blog:

The Miami Herald story (“Pentagon Study: War is a ‘Debacle’ “) distorts the nature of and intent of my personal research project. It was not an NDU study, nor was it a Pentagon study. Indeed, the implication of the Herald story was that this study was mostly about current events. Such is not the case. It was mainly about the period 2002-04. The story also hypes a number of paragraphs, many of which are quoted out of context. The study does not “lay much of the blame” on Secretary Rumsfeld for problems in the conduct of the war, nor does it say that he “bypassed the Joint Chiefs of Staff.” It does not single out “Condoleeza Rice and Stephen Hadley” for criticism…

Of course, the usual suspects in the Leftosphere ran with the distorted McClatchy story.  TPM’s Paul Kiel named it a “must read” — as opposed to the study itself, even though he linked it.  Spencer Ackerman did an update post that does not link back to the original.  ThinkProgress buries the link in its story, giving no indication that Collins is calling the story a distortion.  The Carpetbagger Report simply parroted ThinkProgress.  John Cole, to his credit, did a pretty straightforward update, though he might have mentioned that the study is not a NDU study and that most of it covers 2002-04, as opposed to telling his readers to read the study themselves.  Curiously, the main post makes clear that Cole read the study, but he did not link to it until the update.

(h/t Memeorandum.)

Update: Insta-lanche!

50 Comments  :::   Post a comment »

  1. Comment by Merovign on 4/18 @ 5:06 pm #

    Let me just add this to the list… Volume VII, page 1233…

    Too bad there’s actually no real penalty for dishonesty left. I can’t bring myself to join the Liar Brigades, but with their many successes, it’s only a matter of time.

  2. Comment by Bender Bending Rodriguez on 4/18 @ 5:18 pm #

    Any blog that links a McSketchy story think they are getting any kind of objective truth is run by a full-on, braces-on-the-legs, bowl-haircut, walking-into-the-sliding-glass-door, drooling harelip retard. Sorry for the insult the mentally challenged…

  3. Pingback by “Journalists” distort, Nutroots dance for joy | Cold Fury on 4/18 @ 5:24 pm #

    [...] Yawn. I mean, really, this is about as dog-bites-man as it gets. But hats off to Karl for uncovering it just the same. Category: Fucking Morons, Near-Naked Propaganda &#9830 &#9830 [...]

  4. Comment by Jeff G. on 4/18 @ 5:44 pm #

    Curiously, the main post makes clear that Cole read the study, but he did not link to it until the update.

    “Curiously”?

    Not so much, no.

  5. Comment by joshers on 4/18 @ 5:47 pm #

    I was “quoted out of context”… hmmm… you don’t hear that excuse very often. I guess the feigned outrage is reserved for when someone on the left says that.

    “Measured in blood and treasure, the war in Iraq has achieved the status of a major war and a major debacle.”

    Yup… definitely a distortion.

  6. Comment by MayBee on 4/18 @ 5:50 pm #

    Yay! The war is a debacle!!!! Finally something to celebrate after the rough week our man Obama has had!

  7. Comment by Jeff G. on 4/18 @ 6:01 pm #

    Hey, using the “joshers quotient,” any observation made years ago is still necessarily controlling. Probably because Obama has sucked all the possibility for change out of the space time continuum.

    The result is kinda cool, though.

    Thus:

    The atom is still the smallest particle of matter.

    The earth is still flat.

    The Captain and Tennile still RAWK!

    Go back and GOOGLE IT, PEOPLE!

  8. Comment by Pablo on 4/18 @ 6:05 pm #

    You had me going up until this:

    “The Captain and Tennile still RAWK!”

    They never RAWKED. Little River Band, OTOH….

  9. Comment by Dan Collins on 4/18 @ 6:09 pm #

    Fuck the Little River Band. Poco, man. And Klaatu.

  10. Comment by Pablo on 4/18 @ 6:14 pm #

    Don’t make me bust out Air Supply, Dan. Because that wouldn’t work, would it?

  11. Comment by Dave E. on 4/18 @ 6:17 pm #

    And so another stone is set in the comunity based reality of the left. Outside of Cole, I bet none of those tools actually read the study(and Cole didn’t comprehend it if he did read it). It’s almost like they’re gullible or something.

  12. Comment by guinsPen on 4/18 @ 6:17 pm #

    Klaatu

    Teh Beatles !!!

  13. Comment by Karl on 4/18 @ 6:18 pm #

    Klaatu? I would have pegged Dan as a fan of “Anus of Uranus”…

  14. Comment by Karl on 4/18 @ 6:19 pm #

    Jeff,

    I meant “curiously” like Altoids.

  15. Comment by guinsPen on 4/18 @ 6:21 pm #

    I picture him more as a chip off old Sir Rugglesby.

  16. Comment by Terrye on 4/18 @ 6:23 pm #

    These people never give up. Iraq could be Switzerland and it would still be bitch bitch bitch. And hope for disaster. They are like vultures on road kill.

  17. Comment by ff11 on 4/18 @ 7:05 pm #

    How do you distort “Pentagon institute calls Iraq war ‘a major debacle’ with outcome ‘in doubt’” … and that’s the headline, word for word!

  18. Trackback by American Power on 4/18 @ 7:11 pm #

    Distorted Antiwar Propaganda

    “… it’s stories like McClatchy’s which serve the vital function of exposing the left for what it is: Elliptical, irrational, and postmodernist in its fundamental hostility to journalistic and political reality.

    A friendly thanks goes out to Kar…

  19. Comment by JD on 4/18 @ 8:28 pm #

    ff11 – Why don’t you ask the author? Fucking lying crapweasels. ff11 and joshers should have to rent oxygen from the rest of the sentient world.

  20. Comment by happyfeet on 4/18 @ 8:30 pm #

    Nibbling on bacon, chewin’ on cheese
    Andy says Baracky “Honey, would you please be my missus?”
    And he says yes
    With his kisses

  21. Comment by Dave E. on 4/18 @ 8:40 pm #

    Since they apparently can’t read, perhaps ff11 and joshers would comprehend this post if someone put it in braille on their genitals. At least they’d have time to work on it. And no, I’m not volunteering.

  22. Comment by Karl on 4/18 @ 8:51 pm #

    hint: Collins is not specifically objecting to use of the word “debacle.” But that’s a pretty strawman, innit?

  23. Comment by JD on 4/18 @ 9:12 pm #

    Karl – They cannot deal with real people and real ideas. The strawpeople, they do not fight back, and they are highly flammable.

  24. Trackback by A NEWT ONE on 4/19 @ 2:22 am #

    War News: McClatchey News Anti-Americanists

    These poor excuses for journalistic integrity couldn’t get a story straight if their lives depended on it. And, by the way, it does. They just don’t or won’t see the threats from the enemy. They are very similar if not identical to the chronic malco…

  25. Comment by Campy Smitherson on 4/19 @ 3:35 am #

    I’m a DJ at a local soft-rock radio station, Soft Hits of the 70’s 80’s and 90’s, it 106.8 on your dial, Campy in the Morning is the name of my show.

    Why don’t you guys just crap in a lunch bag, light it on fire, and stomp it all over my career, why dontcha?

  26. Comment by Mikey NTH on 4/19 @ 5:52 am #

    Of course, the usual suspects in the Leftosphere ran with the distorted McClatchy story.

    Tsk, tsk. They forgot a major rule – if it sounds too good to be true it probably is.

  27. Comment by M. Simon on 4/19 @ 6:02 am #

    Author who once worked for Pentagon institute calls Iraq war from 2002 – 2004 ‘a major debacle’ with outcome ‘in doubt’”

    Fixed.

  28. Comment by M. Simon on 4/19 @ 6:05 am #

    Since they apparently can’t read, perhaps ff11 and joshers would comprehend this post if someone put it in braille on their genitals.

    I think tattooing with a blunt needle is required in this particular case.

  29. Comment by Cowboy on 4/19 @ 7:10 am #

    Feets:

    Progs are muskrat-lovers.

  30. Comment by Mark in Texas on 4/19 @ 7:20 am #

    joshers:I was “quoted out of context”… hmmm… you don’t hear that excuse very often. I guess the feigned outrage is reserved for when someone on the left says that.

    The outrage is not feigned over stuff like this.

  31. Comment by cubanbob on 4/19 @ 11:10 am #

    Speaking of debacles and endless wars, can we just withdraw from LBJ’s War on Poverty already? My back is killing me from carrying those parasites with no end in sight. Its a debacle I tell ya!

  32. Comment by Rob Crawford on 4/19 @ 12:41 pm #

    Speaking of debacles and endless wars, can we just withdraw from LBJ’s War on Poverty already?

    Apparently not. The Democrats are actually recommending another surge.

  33. Comment by Paul B on 4/19 @ 1:35 pm #

    Reading the orginal document and comparing it to the McClatchy account doesn’t support any charge of distortion or of taking quotes out of context. Yes, it mainly covers the decision making process between 2001 – 2003, but there are references all through the piece to events in 2006-2007. And despite mentioning recent gains in security, the author insisted in describing the war as “a debacle” in his opening sentence. It’s also clear in the orginal document that the NDU IS the publisher and that it is published as a study for the INSS which is the policy research arm of the NDU. Non of the charges against the McClatchy report stand up, somebody must have come down hard on the author for him to make false charges that are easily debunked.

  34. Comment by maggie katzen on 4/19 @ 2:35 pm #

    It’s also clear in the orginal document that the NDU IS the publisher and that it is published as a study for the INSS which is the policy research arm of the NDU.

    um, actually, it’s a bit more nuanced than that.

    Since 2006, the Institute for National Strategic Studies (INSS) has
    contributed to the Project on National Security Reform’s study of the
    interagency process. The Project’s mission is “to assist national leadership
    in improving the U.S. Government’s ability to effectively provide for the
    nation’s security in the 21st century.” This study is aimed at developing an
    interagency reform agenda that would parallel the historic Goldwater-
    Nichols Department of Defense Reorganization Act of 1986. The Project
    on National Security Reform is a nonpartisan initiative hosted by the
    Center for the Study of the Presidency. As part of this cooperative effort
    and in furtherance of the INSS mission to inform the national defense
    policy debate, INSS is publishing selected analyses on national security
    reform. This paper is a contribution to this endeavor.

  35. Comment by Steve J. on 4/19 @ 3:09 pm #

    In the preface to the study, Collins clearly is referring to the recent past, not 2002-2004:

    “Measured in blood and treasure, the war in Iraq has achieved the
    status of a major war and a major debacle. As of fall 2007…”

    “The Congressional Research Service estimates that the
    United States now spends over $10 billion per month on the war, and that
    the total, direct U.S. costs from March 2003 to July 2007 have exceeded
    $450 billion…”

  36. Comment by maggie katzen on 4/19 @ 3:34 pm #

    well, how about you actually quote from the “preface” Steve J.?

    not from the preface:

    The goal of this case study is to outline how the United States chose
    to go to war in Iraq, how its decisionmaking process functioned, and what
    can be done to improve that process.

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