Michael O’Hanlon of the Brookings Institute appeared on “Hardball” Monday to defend his propaganda piece OpEd, “A War We Just Might Win” which appeared in Monday’s New York Times. O’Hanlon and the co-author of the article, Kenneth Pollack, have been falsely labeled by much of the media as being critical of the war in Iraq, when in fact they have been two of the biggest cheerleaders for the invasion and occupation from the beginning — and like most Bushies they have been wrong about almost everything. The OpEd, which contradicts O’Hanlon’s own research, while acknowledging that the political process has seen little success, uses cherry picked data to give the false impression that there is real progress being made militarily.
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In this clip O’Hanlon squares off with Brian Katulis from the Center For American Progress, who labeled the article exactly what it is — propaganda. Katulis does a fine job of exposing O’Hanlon, pointing out that the surge has failed because it hasn’t brought about the desired effect, which is a cohesive and functioning Iraqi government.
2 Trackbacks To “Michael O’Hanlon - An Argument He Just Might Lose“
this war has lasted longer than ww2 but Michael doesn’t give a shit. The media go “OMG a convert” to someone that has always used Victor Davis Hanson talking points
He’s whining the war?
Of course we’re winning the war, my fellow Comrades. To think otherwise would be Un-Patriotic and Un-American.
You’re either WITH us or AGAINST us. It’s your decision.
Rove calls some commentary writers and pleads with them to write some positive pieces.
Thats also called War Propaganda.
The occupation won’t be successful until the Iraqi parliment signs the oil giveaway agreements that the oil companies drafted. Then we will have won the hearts and minds, oh and the oil of the iraqis,
Of course it’s going to lool like it’s improving where you have large groups of heavily armed people. The question is what happens when they leave? They can’t stay there indefinitely.
Predictably, right-wing bloggers have jumped on that idiotic OpEd piece as evidence that the Bush strategy is working. How pathetic.
I can’t believe people still talk about what will happen *when* we leave Iraq.
Fools. That day will never come, so stop fretting.
The USofA is in Iraq to stay. (Hey, that rhymed.)
As Ronald Reagan once said, “You ain’t seen nothin’ yet!”
It’s a repeat of a horror flick. The same rationales, invoked by those who celebrated the Vietnam war, are today embraced by the same vicious breed of cat.
I am their mortal enemy.
I was younger then, times changed, and I subsequently began to pull my punches.
But no longer.
Any democratic presidential candidate, unprepared to declare unbridled war on the GOP, is beyond useless.
They are collaborators with an unholy tyranny.
Go Niners.
It is as if O’Hanlon has just reported how victory is just around the corner and that the troops should be given more of a chance to make it work-forty years ago in Vietnam. The other analyst and reporters like David Halberstam would recognize O’Hanlon as being a tool for the administration.
In the 1960s, Halberstam called the press conferences that were held in Vietnam the five o’clock follies, because everything that was said by the military back then was spun in order to present a rosy picture of how things were going for the U.S. in Vietnam, when in point of fact just the opposite was true. O’Hanlon and Pollak are now representing the five o’clock follies of what is going on today in Iraq. The hope is that there will be those in the media who will not allow these two to get away with their blatant propaganda.
It’s such a crock to hear that O’Hanlon has been a “liberal” and against the buildup to go to war in Iraq. This guy was a main cheerleader and propagandist for Bush Co. He looked flat- footed and almost apoplectic in his faux rage at being called a liar. It was a great smackdown…a long time coming. Fox Opinion had Bay Buchanan on last night repeating that O’Hanlon and Pollack “were two liberal analysts who see we are winning the war.” Even Coombs hit back at the farce.
Bush seems to have out sourced the “catapaulting” of the propaganda to these two guys.
You folks clearly need a refresher course in Orwell 101.
Y’see, there’s this thing called the “memory hole.” Your lesson today is to learn about and understand its usage.
Give it just one more Friedman unit…
[Deleted. Take the incoherent racism elsewhere]
About the only ones that have had any sucess in uniting the Iraqis are the Iraqi Football Team. They have done what the Bush Administration and its puppet Government never could do and they did it, without military firepower. O’Hanlon and the others, just like past imperialists will never learn.
This O’Hanlon guy spent 8 days in Iraq and now he knows all about it?! Forget the south of Iraq, but if you focus in on some selected neighborhoods in Baghdad things look good?!
If he give myself a lobotomy, can I then join the Brookings Institute and make big bucks as an armchair warrior?
[refers to deleted post]
Well it’s actually gonna be 2008 now. According to the Pentagram.
Wow. Eamon and Joe O. with back-to-back football-related analogies and/or posts.
Seems like everybody’s getting a kick out of this “war”.
sometimes when I see clips like this, i feel bad. i feel bad because i didn’t use my intelligence to dupe a bunch of foolish people to enrich myself. but then i remember i have a conscience and i let it go.
The White House was fully aware this Op-Ed was coming out and they probably had a hand in vetting it beforehand for ‘pro-surge’ points. Please how transparent. Bush will do what he wants when he wants and how he wants. He doesn’t care about the majority will of the American people, he only cares about his ‘perceived’ legacy (how laughable is that). This is Bush’s war and will always be his war. Period.
Wonder how much the Bush administration is paying this guy to write?
Anytime Bush and his thugs need some propaganda they just hire the first press whore willing to sell their integrity for a few bucks.
You know, I have to wonder if O’Hanlon would have made a perfect fit in the old Soviet Politburo during the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan? The way he and other war supporters talk, I bet you heard just about the same thing in the old Soviet Union just before their puppet regime (I.E. Mohammad Najibullah) in Afghanistan fell.
One of these guys said yesterday that their tour was arranged by the military. Kinda difficult to write something negative about your host on a tour. Arranged by the white house? Let by the military? Postive for the war? I’m shocked! Wait, no I’m not.
If we had only given Viet Nam a few more months!
Did anyone else notice that when O”Hanlon was put on the spot he jumped to the “personal attack” defense so he wouldn’t have to defend his position with facts? Watch for this as the new Right Wing approach—-looking for sympathy and “fairness.”
Larry @ 27:
It ain’t new - during Bush’s goobernatorial campaign against Ann Richards they squealed like stuck pigs cuz she supposedly referred to him as a “jerk.” This was in Texas!
Justice From Behind Barricades in Baghdad
By MICHAEL R. GORDON
The U.S. and Iraqi governments have built a legal Green Zone to shelter judges and secure the trials of some of Iraq’s most dangerous suspects.a>
If the ’surge’ worked, this wouldn’t be necessary! maybe the ‘toilet paper of record’ can end its schizophrenia one day.
Nah! Nevermind!
What are surges without throbbings?
The right-wing salesman starts out by whining that his opponent attacked his credibility, then prefaces every one of his statements with an attack on his opponent’s credibility.
They’re like spoiled children.
Orwell’s Illegitimate Son @ 13:
I was having some problems with that earlier, but some Preparation H fixed it right up.
BaScOmBe @ 29:
Justice From Behind Barricades in Baghdad
By MICHAEL R. GORDON
The U.S. and Iraqi governments have built a legal Green Zone to shelter judges and secure the trials of some of Iraq’s most dangerous suspects.
If the ’surge’ worked, this wouldn’t be necessary! maybe the ‘toilet paper of record’ can end its schizophrenia one day.
Nah! Nevermind!
[corrected, I hope]
Question: Where do the Iraqi politicians go on vacation, and how do they get there? I’m assuming there are very few vacation “road trips” in Iraq.
To paraphrase O’Hanlon: Far left extremists like Katulis should stop the personal attacks and stick to the facts.
ysbaddaden @ 33:
That’s topical.
I’m glad to see that all the disruption in the Administration has not impacted on the Bureau of Disinformation’s ability to spread lies, half truths and utter nonsense.
An Average Joe @ 35:
I agree and considering that they are mostly exiles and considered traitors and/or collaborators by the average Iraqi you know that they have heavy American security around them. My guess, they are living it up on their vacation in the United States. They probably have guest rooms at Bush’s Crawford ranch.
Latest Coalition Fatality: Jul 30, 2007
Military Fatalities: By Month
Period US UK Other* Total Avg Days
7-2007 74 7 1 82 2.65 31
6-2007 101 7 0 108 3.6 30
5-2007 126 3 2 131 4.23 31
4-2007 104 12 1 117 3.9 30
Highest three-month total of the war and that many dead must mean that the surge is working.
Hanlon is pathetic. Claims without proof is all he has.
I wished that Barnicle had added something like “Well let’s see if we stay there another 100 days that would figure out to be about 600 additional Americans dead, but that is acceptable because…………well er….. because…….?
Orwell’s Illegitimate Son @ 20:
Love the “getting a kick” line. :lol: By the way, it seems that some writers see the Iraqi Football Team’s victory in the same way that I said in my #16 post. I might also add to this article though that the Bush Administration’s failures are also exposed. As if anyone hasn’t realized that already. From Reuters:
Iraq’s soccer success exposes politicians’ failure
By Mussab Al-Khairalla
BAGHDAD (Reuters) - If 11 young men can instill national pride and a sense of unity by playing soccer, Iraqis are wondering why 275 politicians elected to steer Iraq to a brighter future cannot achieve the same result.
http://www.reuters.com/article.....st_meeting
sounds rather like a distraction to cover an issue? when do we see such complicity? when bad news is coming and diversion is in order. much like arlen and his gasbag deflation. what is it they are covering?
poor arlen, always looking so rational whilst doing the dirty work of the crime organization he is charged to investigate.
nothing like having them bought before they attack you
Let’s give the benefit of the doubt and suggest that there has been military progress–though “military” is kind of a misnomer, it’s really “policing.” The big irony is that this progress has come at the expense of political progress, because arming the sunnis just drives a further wedge between the sects, and as O’Hanlon himself admits, security progress is only useful insofar as it allows for political reconciliation.
Orwell’s Illegitimate Son @ 37:
Quite right a topical cream.
Small consolation for this awful mess, but it did feel good to see the little shit get smacked down so effectively…
Funny how so many conservatives will play gotcha games, but when refuted by their own quoted rules, they claim no fair, that’s only palying gotcha!
Joe O. @ 42:
Why do I get the idea that Iraqi torturers are good at kicking balls too?
Our local right-wing news editor has loudly embraced this article as proof that Bush was right all along and that we must stay the course. These two Brookings guys would have been ignored by most of the media had they filed an honest report.
What is the deal here?
What an idiot. He said the war was different in 2004. I agree. Less death and destruction. These guys keep playing the horse of a different color game.
Why hasn’t Michael O’Hanlon and Kirk Cameron ever been photographed together?
It’s Bibleman!
when they show the ‘picture of success’, it’s just rubble. so success is apparently the total leveling of every liveable area of Iraq. I’m sure that the Iraqis want to shower the US with rose petals for it. Especially with 8 million not even having running water or bathrooms or waste removal.
yeah, things are going swimmingly. for the sake of four oil companies, we are literally killing an entire country. over a million dead already and neither side discussed the Iraqi condition as a reason to end the lie-based so-called war. As far as I’m concerned, they are both full of schitt.
Gen, Smedley Butler had it right!