The AP Does Its Part to Cheerlead for Defeat

Time for the AP to get in on the "spin the surge" game - don't want to let the NTY and the BBC get too far ahead, of course. Today's AP entry is subject to analysis by Jules Crittenden:

The AP’s Stephen R. Hurst proclaims the resilience of Sunni insurgents!

BAGHDAD (AP) - Sunni insurgents, resilient despite the five-week security crackdown in the capital, killed at least six more American troops over the weekend. A Sunni car bomber hit a largely Shiite district in the capital Sunday, killing at least eight people.

I’m getting a warm and fuzzy Pravda kind of feel off that, the ”resilience.” Stalwart insurgents resiliently marching forward! You have to troll the North Korean web to find that kind of thing these days!

The next three paragraphs are devoted to American death, spiced up with phrases like the one about Anbar being “controlled by the Sunni insurgency.” I’m concerned that might be somewhat overbroad, when you consider the significant influence of both the U.S. and Iraqi military and pro-government tribes have over what goes on in Anbar. But that’s what good propaganda is all about! Then we get to this:

While U.S. and Iraqi troops have flooded the Baghdad streets and a heavily armored American column was sent north to adjacent Diyala province, attacks on American and Iraqi forces have been robust.

The resilient enemy is also robust! Strangely, no mention of the “dozens” of resilient, robust insurgents who were granted martyrdom in that action in Diyala. But let’s not dawdle about the trivial details. We’ll get to those, the whole “violence down” thing later. We’re following AP’s game plan, and AP is playing gotcha! Any action or reaction by terrorists who have been severely set back is a sign of surge failure, and must be played high, resiliently and robustly. All American statements must be buried, carefully selected and couched to suggest futility. Like this one:

“The issue that we’re all trying to figure out is how best do you get the Iraqis to reconcile their differences - because after all, this is not going to be solved by the military. It has to involve political reconciliation in Iraq, among Iraqis,” Mr. Gates said on CBS’s “Face the Nation.”

“We’re basically buying them time,” he said.

Obligatory U.S. death count follows. The AP wisely avoids applying this standard to the enemy, despite the availability of dead insurgent/terrorist numbers. Counter-productive. Counter-revolutionary!

Do read the entire post.