At The Corner, John Podhoretz notes that Thomas Friedman is nothing but consistent. No matter what time it is, it’s always a critical time in Iraq – or at least the next six months will be.
Now, there is some truth to that – in democratization, previous successes (and failures) build upon each other, but one would think that Friedman would have something more than variations on a theme here. There’s nothing technically incorrect about what Friedman’s saying, but it still seems like the same old tune with a different beat each time.
Meanwhile, if one is looking for truly insightful commentary on the war, the journalistic class has nothing on people like Michael Totten or Michael Yon who have provided the sort of in-depth analysis and insight that the traditional media used to excel at – but have largely abandoned for safer fluff pieces. Both their work is easily Pulitzer quality, and both display the kind of intrepid spirit and open minds that mainstream media seem to have lost.
Given the journalistic casualty numbers in the War in Iraq, it’s not hard to see why they’re not leaving the green zone. That’s something I always wondered about in previous conflicts- why bother killing soldiers, when journalists are often much easier prey, and much more effective at swaying enemy opinion? It seems that the insurgents in Iraq finally wised up…