Huffington's Strawman Torched

Poor Arianna Huffington doesn't like it when there's been a steady drumbeat of good news from Iraq, such as the rapid decline in violence and the reduction of five combat brigades as the Iraqi Security Forces become stronger. She has been rather mute on the Iraq conflict in the last few months, and has taken to more idle banter such as "Memo to Obama: Moving to the Middle is for Losers" and some self-righteous ceremony called "The Webby Awards". But, on occassion, she will find opportune times to chime in with her foreign policy expertise. One good time was when LT Nixon and his peers were hitting the deck 8 times a day as the Green Zone got shellacked, and she found it in the goodness of her heart to say to take a potshot at McCain about the situation. Wow, we were all so ecstatic to be the human sacrifices to her little bit of coyish punditry while there was a war going on. Ariana Huffington has no interest in whether or not violence ceases in Iraq, only in how the war can be charecterized for her own political purposes to seize power in an election year.

This is most evident today when, rather than constructively criticize foreign policy as some do, she launches an unhinged attack at a strawman that is as flimsy as the secret stash of nazi-midget-porn that all non-liberals supposedly posses:

John McCain, aided and abetted by his loving protectors in the media, is running a victory lap on Iraq. To hear them tell it, the surge has "worked" -- indeed, it has been a huge success -- and this, like a last second Hail Mary pass, has vindicated the entire disastrous Iraq misadventure.

Seriously, Ms. Huffington, what the fuck are you talking about? Media coverage of Iraq is currently on the order of magnitude of Mr. Belvedere re-runs and the cat that was under house arrest. The American media lost interest in Iraq somewhere around late 2007, which is precisely the time there were major reductions in violence (might just be a coincidence, or it might not...)

One fascinating bit of propaganda today to enrage some factions that have a political interest in Iraq getting worse:

Admiral Mullen, head of the whole damn U.S. military, thanks Iraqi troops in Mosul for booting out terrorists (pic from The Herald)

Bong!

Update: The older, wiser, and better bloggers at This Ain't Hell already wrote about this Huffington garbage. Damn! Albeit, their post is more about political progress. Go check out the site that one surly commenter called a gaggle of angry, old vets.