Hardball: Iraq mess, media and Congress

I watched a bit of MSNBC's Hardball on TV last night. Retired General Barry McCaffrey, a teacher at West Point was not mincing words when giving his opinion that this administration has royally balled up the situation in Iraq. He says that we needed many more troops than they put on the ground and that the handover was done way too soon, before the Iraqis have anything near the security forces they need on their own, and that it was done for political purposes of our November elections. He also said that the threat of restoring the draft is not more than a threat, as even the military leaders don't think it's necessary. He thinks we should focus on recruitment efforts.

Two embedded journalists were on the show discussing Spit-comb Wolfowitless' statements about lazy media reporting in Iraq that left out the good things going on and reported only the sensational.

Michael Weisskopf was a journalist who lost a hand throwing a grenade out of the humvee he was riding in. He said that there were some good things, but even by Wolfowitless' measure of construction progress, things were not good in Iraq, and that by another measure, 100 Iraqis a day are being killed.

David Zucchino, an embedded reporter from the LA Times, said that Wolfowitless was the one who was highly protected while in Iraq, and that the reporters are taking life-threatening risks all the time. He said that the soldiers there are trained to fight and kill, and not to rebuild infrastructure or even engage in peacekeeping. They are confused about their mission and untrained for the things they are being asked to do.

He also said that what was shown on the news of the taking of Baghdad was not accurate because there was no overall coordination of reports, compounded by the lag in getting the full story. He said that it actually had been an incredibly hard fought victory, and not the easy swoop portrayed by TV reports.

I had to quit watching when the show turned to two Congresspeople discussing whether there is more rancor in the halls these days than ever in the past. Dana Rohrbacher (R-CA) was trying desperately to defend the situation, apparently believing that the charge was that the Republicans are to blame for the viciousness. He insisted there wasn't any more spite and animosity than there has been in the past. That may be true. But when he got all indignant about the fact that the Democrats had actually had the gall to try to undercut President Reagan in the Iran-Contra affair (rolling eyes and snorting the phrase) and to put Ollie North in jail!, I had to leave the room.

....but hey, say what you want....you will anyway.