The worst part about this whole charade is that the MSM has been telling everyone that these two warmonging Bush administration toadies used to be critics of the war.
CBS Evening News falsely described proponent of Iraq "surge" as former opponent of it
On the July 30 edition of the CBS Evening News, CBS News national security correspondent David Martin falsely described Brookings Institution senior fellow Michael O'Hanlon as "a critic" of the Iraq war "who used to think the surge was too little too late, [but] now believes it should be continued." In fact, while O'Hanlon has been critical of the Bush administration's handling of the Iraq war, he supported the invasion and argued in a January 2007 column that President Bush's troop increase was "the right thing to try."
Additionally, during the July 30 broadcast of Fox News' Special Report, while introducing a report on a July 30 New York Times op-ed by O'Hanlon and Kenneth Pollack, director of research at the Brookings Institution's Saban Center for Middle East Policy -- in which they asserted: "We are finally getting somewhere in Iraq, at least in military terms" -- host and Fox News Washington managing editor Brit Hume suggested that O'Hanlon and Pollack were longtime Iraq war critics. Hume described the two as "[a] pair of longtime opponents of President Bush's policies in Iraq." The same night, ABC's World News anchor Charles Gibson began his show's report on O'Hanlon and Pollack's op-ed by describing the authors as "long and persistent critics of the Bush administration's handling of the war." But in focusing only on O'Hanlon and Pollack's criticisms of the "handling" of the war, the news broadcasts failed to note that O'Hanlon and Pollack were influential proponents of the Iraq war before the invasion, leaving viewers with the impression that the two were war opponents who have now become more supportive of the war.
As Media Matters for America has noted, however, Pollack authored a book advocating invading Iraq called The Threatening Storm: The Case for Invading Iraq (Random House, October 2002). Describing Pollack's book in a February 8, 2003, New York Times column (subscription required), Bill Keller -- now the Times' executive editor -- wrote: "Kenneth Pollack, the Clinton National Security Council [NSC] expert whose argument for invading Iraq is surely the most influential book of this season, has provided intellectual cover for every liberal who finds himself inclining toward war but uneasy about Mr. Bush." Random House's online description of the book states: "Examining all sides of the debate and bringing a keen eye to the military and geopolitical forces at work, Pollack ultimately comes to this controversial conclusion: through our own mistakes, the perfidy of others, and Saddam's cunning, the United States is left with few good policy options regarding Iraq. Increasingly, the option that makes the most sense is for the United States to launch a full-scale invasion, eradicate Saddam's weapons of mass destruction, and rebuild Iraq as a prosperous and stable society -- for the good of the United States, the Iraqi people, and the entire region."
O'Hanlon similarly argued in support of the invasion. For instance, in a February 5, 2003, Washington Times op-ed, O'Hanlon wrote: "Even those of us who have questioned the case for war over the last year, and who do not buy all of the Bush administration's arguments for invasion even today, need to face the fact that there soon will be no other plausible option." Continuing, O'Hanlon laid out the rationale for invading Iraq and warned that "the time for patience" with Saddam Hussein "is running out":[/quote]
