TIME decapitates GWB and military

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In his most recent hit piece aimed at undermining public opinion against the Iraq war effort, TIME journalist columnist Joe Klein begins his diatribe with a startling piece of photography. President Bush is shown with several military personnel at Fort Benning from the shoulders down. None of the heads are visible.

In a further sign of disrespect (if not outright contempt), Klein even misspells “military”, as if TIME computers don’t employ spell-check.

“U.S. President George W. Bush poses with U.S. militray paratroopers undergoing training during a tour of Fort Benning, Georgia.”

Klein’s attack on President Bush and the military continues, as he attempts to make the case that AQI is absolutely not the same al Qaeda that was responsible for the 9/11 surprise attack…

The group doing the most spectacular bombings in Iraq was named al-Qaeda in Mesopotamia by its founder, Abu Mousab al-Zarqawi, now deceased, in an attempt to aggrandize his reputation in jihadi-world. It is a sliver group, representing no more than 5% of the Sunni insurgency. It shares a philosophy, but not much else, with the real al-Qaeda, which operates out of Pakistan.

How Klein came up with the 5% figure is not disclosed. It is, perhaps, as with so many assertions from the left, simply fabricated to fit the template. Or, perhaps Klein got his figures from some of the same AP stringers who have been responsible for some of the most glaring examples of mis-information and pro-jihadi propaganda. The fact is that there is a significant foreign element within the insurgency. Sorting out the players is difficult at best for the coalition. Support from the Sunni tribes is necessary, and building that support has been an important part of coalition successes in Anbar and Diyala.

With many MSM outlets, reporting success in Iraq is rare, because it is contrary to the Vietnam template. Klein’s report is no exception. While paying a left-handed compliment to the military, Klein criticizes the President for not touting the success of the surge in Diyala. It is a bizarre assertion:

If al-Qaeda in Mesopotamia is on the run, if we have “turned a corner” against al-Qaeda, as a senior Administration official told me, then an argument can be made that it is time to begin planning our departure.

You’ve got to hand it to the left: they’ve covered every base of the “failure is the only option” meme. Either the surge is a failure as touted by Harry Reid, or the surge is a success, but Bush is lying about it because that would mean that it’s time to begin withdrawing our forces.

Fools, the lot of them.

Link: TIME–“The July Surprise”, by Joe Klein; photography by Brooks Kraft/Corbis for Time

see also: April Fool’s pullout date, WH Presser

UPDATE: Continuing along the Klein meme: IHT–Bush distorts AQ links (h/t Ann)

UPDATE 2: Here is a snapshot of the TIME article

UPDATE 3: Great piece by Bill Roggio: AQ and its role in the Iraq insurgency

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