BCT Editorial – 12/10/08

This page was last updated on December 10, 2008.

Daily reminder; Editorial; Beaver County Times; December 10, 2008.

The editorial subtitle is “Bush officials will have a harder time rewriting history.”

You have to give the Times “credit” for accusing someone else of “rewriting history.” When lefties get hold of a myth, they never let go. The portions of this editorial referring to Gen. Shinseki are mostly a regurgitation of the editorial entitled “Fitting farewell” of November 13, 2006. Please read my critique of that editorial for my comments on this point.

The editorial says Deputy Defense Secretary Paul Wolfowitz “publicly rebuked Shinseki, saying his remarks were ‘wildly off the mark.’” The implication is Mr. Wolfowitz ran to a microphone looking to blast Gen. Shinseki in the press. The editorial fails to note this comment was made during testimony to the House Budget Committee.

The editorial asserts, “In their collective hubris, they [the Bush White House and … civilian officials at the Pentagon] failed to heed the warnings of U.S. military leaders.” The implication is most “U.S. military leaders” shared the opinion of Gen. Shinseki. That’s not true.

It’s important to note the Times doesn’t really care if the Bush administration followed the advice of “U.S. military leaders.” You’ll recall several editorials bashing President Bush for taking the advice of Gen. David Petraeus regarding “the surge.” Indeed, when early reports indicated the surge was working, the Times accused Gen. Petraeus of “playing a numbers game” and U.S. Ambassador Ryan Crocker of “spin[ning] the military surge.” Even today the Times doesn’t give the surge strategy credit for the drastic improvements we’ve seen in Iraq. You’ll recall the Times gave credit for progress in Iraq over the last 20+ months to the “Sunni awakening,” Iran, and Muqtada al-Sadr, not our troops.