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Remember when Iraq's Anbar Province was "Lost?"
By Michael Fumento
It's wonderful news that we've handed over to the Iraqi military what was formerly the vicious province in the nation. But probably few remember that two short years ago the Marines themselves, in charge of Anbar military operations, admitted in a classified report "there is almost nothing the U.S. military can do to improve the political and social situation" and we were "no longer able to defeat a bloody insurgency" or "counter al Qaeda's rising popularity . . ."
How could they have been so wrong? Answer: They weren't, as I report in Human Events.
"Lost Anbar" was at the least outrageously bad reporting and at worst a ruse to encourage a withdrawal from Iraq, concocted by a single reporter at the Washington Post, Thomas Ricks. He based his demoralizing articles on a single report he'd never even seen. Naturally the MSM parroted Ricks's assertion ad nauseum. But normally they skipped the middleman and simply declared: "The Marines have admitted . . ."
Yet even at the time, articles from Al Anbar itself, including a 10,000-word one from yours truly, contradicted the Post's presentation with on-the-scene observations, interviews, statistics, and a comparison to my previous visit when the area was horrifically violent and the situation indeed looked dire. I concluded that article, "I believe we are winning the Battle of Ramadi. And if the enemy can be beaten here, he can be beaten anywhere."
My Human Events piece is a powerful warning that regardless of progress in Iraq - and with Afghanistan going badly - the MSM will stop at nothing to further the agendae of promoting sensationalism and, often enough, trying to sink our war efforts.
September 15, 2008 10:45 AM ·
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