EckerNet.Com

Captain Ed absolutely nails the shortcomings of the MSM coverage of the war in Iraq

The author of this analysis acknowledges two truths. First, rather than representing any real existential threat to the government, the insurgency only rises to the level of a \”daily annoyance\”. This clashes with the depiction in the American media of the Zarqawi network as a mass destabilizer, a description that even [Al Qaeda] rejects. The terror analyst also recognizes that the tactics used by the terrorist network have largely alienated even the Sunnis by killing those who represent no threat to [Al Qaeda] — the \”scared and the hiding ones\”. [Al Qaeda], he says, needs an image makeover.

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This is a frank admission that the only effect that AQ has made is to convince the media — presumably the American media — that the situation cannot be controlled, despite their acknowledgement that they represent nothing more than a nuisance. It also cautions against falling in love with seeing themselves on the TV, because the cost of such operations results in a lack of assets for holding real territory. Right now, they cannot even hold a university, let alone a city or suburb.

This is all from a post regarding the Al Qaeda correspondence that were apparently discovered in Baghdad recently. It\’s worth the time to read it all. It certainly stands to support what those of us who are actually paying attention already know. That things are getting better. And that every day that goes by increases the liklihood that Iraq will be a success.

However, I guess I also feel a little uneasy about it. Now we\’ve certainly intercepted Al Qaeda correspondence before. And the past intercepts do tend to paint an increasingly bleak picture for Al Qaeda. So these letters would certainly all be \”in character\”.

All that said, you have to wonder a little bit. I mean first of all, for a blogosphere that prides itself on finding truth amongst lies by rightfully distrusting anonymous sources, this patting ourselves on the back thing seems a little hypocritical. We won\’t trust an anonymous \”highly placed White House source\” in the NYT claiming another Bush scandal, but we\’ll trust an anonymous letter supposedly written by an unknown Al Qaeda operative of unknown seniority which was found at an undisclosed location on an undisclosed date by an undisclosed unit. Anyone else see a problem with that??

And coming as it does just days after the Pentagon released a video showing Zarqawi unable to operate a machine gun. Anyone else see a blatant attempt at propaganda there?? As such, shouldn\’t we take these letters with a Michael Moore sized grain of salt?

I hate to piss on your parade, but don\’t whine to me if you find out you\’re just a puppet dancing to someone else\’s strings. Granted it does follow the theme of what we hear in Iraq, but perhaps breaking out the confetti is a bit much.