Black Box Report

So, here we are, six months - or one Friedman Unit (F.U.) - after the start of the Surge. Six months after various media pundits, rightwing cheerleaders and people who should know better went on as they have for years now that THIS is our last chance at success in Iraq. That if we don't find the pony, that'll be IT. Make or break. All those other do-overs were just gimmes. THIS is for all the marbles, so just everyone cool their jets and give the Surge time to work.

Aaaand six months later, just in time for the interim Iraq report to come out, what have we learned? Are we about to find the pony? Tim F. at Balloon Juice says, no, no pony today:

Remember, we supposedly dumped X thousand troops into Baghdad so that we could keep the violence down. It didn’t work – no political progress was made, no rapport has formed between the warring factions, deaths are up any way you choose to count them (coalition, Iraqi army, Iraqi civilians) and a company of soldiers cannot move four miles through Baghdad without running through multiple ambushes.

.....

The writing is on the wall, in the sky, hanging over the road in giant blinking neon lights. Put a fork in this war. It’s done.

Public support for the war continues to plummet, and even some Republican senators are making unhappy noises. And they want you, the public, to know that they hear you...despite all previous evidence to the contrary:

For those of you who are alarmed by the anti-democratic tendencies of today's GOP, you needn't worry any longer: The leader of the Senate Republicans has just conceded to his constituents that their opinions -- and those of the public at large -- are "not irrelevant."

An article in USA Today captures the surreal but revealing scene:

HOPKINSVILLE, Ky — Just down the road at Fort Campbell on Thursday, TV cameras captured a wrenching scene: tearful spouses exchanging last hugs and toddlers clinging to parents' desert fatigues as troops prepared to ship out for a 15-month deployment.

Hours later, the man who must try to hold Senate Republicans together in this week's debate on Iraq delivered a luncheon speech here to 130 local business and political leaders. Mitch McConnell, Kentucky's senior senator and his party's Senate leader, did not sugarcoat the situation.

"The majority of the public has decided the Iraq effort is not worth it," he said. "That puts a lot of pressure on Congress to act because public opinion in a democracy is not irrelevant."

Phew, thank God for that. I was getting worried there for a minute.

And don't think the President doesn't have his finger on the pulse of the public. He's launching a new PR campaign to spread the word, he is now more than willing to draw down troops in Iraq IF, if...we find the pony:

This is the “new” campaign in a nutshell: if the nation gives Bush more time, and the same policy that’s been failing miraculously starts working, then the president will consider some degree of troop withdrawal. That’s it.

In other words, there’s no news here at all. The Bush gang are hard at work trying to shape a new sales pitch, not a new policy. They’re hoping to slap a fresh coat of paint on a car that’s already on fire.

Now, this might not seem like the most effective plan to get an increasingly hostile public to back the war, much less anxious members of his own party. This is where rightwing bloggers step in (!) Y'see, the problem is people keep reading about all the bad stuff in Iraq. Like GOP Bloggers, who's unveiling their new master plan to win the war, get the girl (or girl-like animatron) and ride their pony off into the sunset. It's called, I kid you not, Operation Good News, and it is like it sounds:

Simply put, Gen. Petraeus needs support in the Senate so he can continue killing AQI terrorists in Iraq. That's why I'm officially announcing the start of Operation Good News. The key to Operation Good News is to giving senators that have announced their support for S. 1545 proof that the surge is working. We can only do that by (a) sending them articles each day that report on the progress being made in Diyala and Anbar provinces and Baghdad and (b) urging them to withdraw their support for S. 1545.

We should send proof each day that Gen. Petraeus' surge is working to Lamar Alexander, Pete Domenici, Richard Lugar, John Warner and Judd Gregg for now. We will add other Republican senators who aren't fighting for victory in Iraq if the need arises. Hopefully, this is the complete list.

It's essential that we do this on a daily basis because the Agenda Media will bombard Republicans in Washington with polls 'showing that the American people don't support the war' and the Democrats will bombard them with negative articles to 'prove' that the surge isn't working. The only way we'll change their minds is if we're able to provide them with the proof that the surge is working and casualties are dropping. It's that simple.

So, by sending their Senators a bunch of positive articles about Iraq from that lying MSM "Agenda Media" that wants nothing but defeat in Ira...wait...but they....

Does not compute! Does not compute!

Anyway, just because you don't look at a poll saying Americans don't support the war, doesn't mean they do. And to be fair, Democrats don't have to bombard them with negative articles. They can use things like Iraq progress reports.

Still......clap louder, or Tinkerbell dies!