Moving this post up...
11:40 a.m.: Nothing shifts American sentiment -- or grabs the news media -- like a major bombing campaign... especially at a time when a clear majority of Americans have soured on the war...
Note that today is also the day the White House released its updated National Security Strategy document, restating its arguments in favor of preemptive war... and NSA Stephen Hadley gives a major speech on the subject ... interesting timing.
Update: David Gregory just asked Scott McClellan the magic question in the afternoon briefing. Paraphrasing:
Does the president think an operation like the one launched today in Iraq is necessary to turn around public opinion in the United States? McClellan claims the decision to strike was not made by the president, but by commanders in the field. Riiiight... And no selling at all, right? Well take a look at the DoD homepage today...
Gregory continues (paraphrasing):
GREGORY ...beyond the merits of this particular operation, we are coming to the three year anniversary of the war, support for the president is at rock bottom, support for the war is at rock bottom... does the president feel this type of operation is important to improve public opinion on the war?
MCCLELLAN: I can't accept the premise of your question... Update 2, 1:07 p.m.: A military announcement with fanfare... And a flashback: from the Sunday Times in January, the U.S. has been stepping up the number of airstrikes (but stepping down the size and range) since late last year, apparently in hopes of setting up a spring troop reduction. (Though that seems unlikely now, with the escalating violence). In other Iraq news, the U.S. also today released a raft of pre-war documents from inside Iraq, including one which purports to show Saddam Hussein was investigating whether 3,000 Iraqis had gone to Afghanistan to fight U.S. forces after 9/11. If this is true, it seems to put the lie to the notion that Saddam was in bed with al-Qaida. If he had been, he wouldn't have had to investigate... Update 3, 1:33 p.m.: What else is news in Iraq today? Interesting stuff: it seems that a report seeped out quietly yesterday saying thousands -- not hundreds -- of Iraqis have been killed by death squads controlled by the Iraqi interior ministry... that's something you probably won't see on the cable shows, now that they've got these shiny new bombing raids to salivate over... Also, would-be presidential candidate Rudolph Giuliani has been named to a panel that will be reviewing U.S. policy in Iraq. The panel was announced by Bush family fixer James Baker and 9/11 commission member Lee Hamilton. Also on the panel, according to Newsday: "former CIA Director Robert Gates; former Clinton adviser Vernon Jordan; former Clinton Chief of Staff Leon Panetta; former Clinton administration Defense Secretary William Perry; former Democratic Sen. Chuck Robb of Virginia; and former Republican Sen. Alan Simpson of Wyoming. " How this helps things? Who knows... You probably will hear abot this one, especially when Giuliani's beau, Chris Matthews, comes on later today... On another TV note, the military propaganda wing is in full voice this afternoon, with the PIOs (public information officers) and "military analysts" fanning out on all the cable chat networks to tout the operation and bedazzle the anchorfolk. This is P.R. 101, folks. You might as well call it "Operation: Change the Headlines." Tags: Iraq war, News, Bush, Iraq, War |
