Newsweek Uses Sleight-Of-Hand Wordplay To Smear, Undermine Petraeus
This is the big headline over at Newsweek right now:
The problem is that the “internal” Pentagon report expected to “differ substantially” from Petraeus’ isn’t really what Michael Hirsh at Newsweek is making it out to be. As Pat Dollard explains:
Newsweek is doing some serious sleight of hand by mentioning the “alternate” Pentagon report “differing substantially” from Petreaus’ recommendations of how to win in Iraq. It’s not a plan drawn up out of consideration for victory in Iraq, but one drawn up as a contingency in the event the Pentagon were to decide that it was more important to have a reserve of troops on hand for other possible conflicts. The so-called dispute with Admiral Fallon is not based on Fallon having a differing view of how to achieve success in Iraq, but of Fallon’s desire to have a ready reserve available for surprise conflicts. Newsweek would have you believe that there’s some report being drawn up that will claim that Petraeus’ Iraq assesment is wrong or even untrue. Not the case.
The idea of our military having contingency plans is nothing new. At one point, our country even had a plan for invading Canada. It didn’t mean that we should have invaded Canada, or that we would. It was just there in case it was needed.
Hirsh and the editors at Newsweek know that, but they aren’t going to let facts get in their way.
