With the U.S. in Vietnam and Nixon in the White House, I was justifiably skeptical. I wonder if my old alma mater has backed off its philosophical preaching of the Eleventh Commandment, that of the NYT's unmistakable perfection, in view of the way this fallen rag cheerleaded Cheney's wars and waved penants for every Bush administration outrage.
Glenn Greenwald laments:
On Friday night's PBS News Hour, David Brooks said: "I think most Republicans believe that the war is lost." That may be true, but if one's knowledge of the war in Iraq were confined to the news pages of The New York Times, one would believe that we are (yet again) making Great Progress there, that things are going swimmingly well, and that Victory is right around the corner in what really ought to be called The Great War against The Al Qaeda Terrorists.Glenn's article is pretty good, with lots of support for his position. I liked Saturday's NSA wiretapping article better, and it isn't just the antagonist in me.
This bullshit editorial is what's so galling about The New York Times:
It is time for the United States to leave Iraq, without any more delay than the Pentagon needs to organize an orderly exit.Are you fucking kidding me? This stupid piece has lots of other laugh-out-loud moments, and I won't put myself through the agony of reading it again to excerpt it for you. If you have a vomit bag or two handy and need to purge, read it yourself. Let me summarize briefly:
Like many Americans, we have put off that conclusion, waiting for a sign that President Bush was seriously trying to dig the United States out of the disaster he created by invading Iraq without sufficient cause, in the face of global opposition, and without a plan to stabilize the country afterward.
This editorial daydreams along, using the words "might," "could" and "should" saying what "maybe" could be if the United States adopted the only real victory, ending hostilities. When our country and the world desperately needed The New York Times to question the benefits and liabilities of going to war, it chose instead to be a rank and file GOP megaphone. Now, when majority public opinion has FINALLY turned against the war, and it's SAFE, the Times heroically declares it's time to bring our troops home—while continuing to trumpet our glorious, unending war effort in the news section.
What a great deal that is for The New York Times—by arguing it both ways, they can please (and sell their irrelevant, hateful partisan hack rag to) everybody. That's what happens when you live in the dream world of ideology, conservative ideology in particular, rather than living wholly in the factual, real world.
I will forget the Times' call for peace, and remember how it ignored the people who hated the killing, the deficit spending and resultant runaway inflation we now suffer, remembering instead and forever how these soulless bastards betrayed the privilege of their stripe and put all their strength and best efforts in helping to make it all happen.
