Sabotage

Good God dammit. I knew this would be the result of that awful O'Hanlon/Pollack op-ed:

Just about every Republican in the Iraq debate on the House floor today has cited and read from the O'Hanlon/Pollack op-ed to argue that we are making significant progress in iraq. Many Republicans have called them "left-wing scholars", as in "even lefties O'Hanlon and Pollack say we are winning."

Just sayin'......that is the political effect of that op-ed......which makes it even more infuriating given that both O'Hanlon and Pollack have walked it back since it was published.

This is made all the more infuriating by what was referred to in the above blockquote, O'Hanlon's complete disavowal of what he wrote:

In an interview on Wednesday, Mr. O’Hanlon said the article was intended to point out that the security situation was currently far better than it was in 2006. What the American military cannot solve, he said, are problems caused by the inability of Iraqis to forge political solutions. “Ultimately, politics trumps all else,” Mr. O’Hanlon said. “If the political stalemate goes on, even if the military progress continued, I don’t see how I could write another Op-Ed saying the same thing.”

Then why did you write this one? The entire point of the "surge" was to provide breathing space for a political reconciliation. On that score, the political situation in Iraq is worse than it's ever been. No progress has been made whatsoever. The temerity of these two, writing a sunny portrait of Iraq in a giant megaphone like the New York Times, but trying to tamp down the sunniness when challenged by the progressive blogosphere, is inexcusable. What a huge propaganda victory for the right. These two are admitting that they essentially lied in their op-ed. Somehow I don't think this will disqualify them from writing another one.