Is the media getting ready to spin the escalation?

[AshevilleGuy]

I am hearing vague snippets from certain media talkers (David Schuster a few minutes ago on MSNBC) that the "surge might be working and Dem candidates are readjusting their stands on it...". Also, I have heard similar semi-pronouncements from others the past few days.

I am not a military expert, so I do not know if this is actually happening, and it seems WAY premature for anyone to actually KNOW. But need I say, should the general public become convinced that the escalation is indeed working it would make it extremely, ahem, awkward for us, and that is wallowing in understatement.

Any thoughts? Evidence one way or the other?

[BOSSHOG]

1. Its like an uptick in the polls

Throw a bunch of troops over there and report the successes. Its all short term gains. As Senator Biden said today - then what?? This is a classic failure and will continue to be. Short of massive nuclear attack, bush and his supporters have lost the cause in Iraq. We have been told everything will be fine in six months for 4 years now.

[Lerkfish]

2. they'd have to define "might be working"

what's that? instead of 67 dead Iraqis a day its down to 53?

[AshevilleGuy]

4. They won't do that.

If this is going to be a true spin, they will simply repeat over and over that the 'surge' is successful, in hopes that Big Lie Theory will work and the line bcomes a truism. Of course at some point real numbers and other evidence could be used to dispute the spin, but would that happen?

TRUISMS are bloody hard to cleanse from the public mindset - they know this.

[Cosmocat]

3. I see this coming from a MILE away ...

Because these guys REALLY like to go back to the golden oldies ...

The surge is nothing but a political manuver ... They KNOW it won't make a bit of difference, but they have feeding the dimwits, even a guy like Schuster, their crape about how there are positive signs ... Letting the media do their dirty work of saying it was getting better ...

SO ...

When the Dems FINALLY find a way to pull the plug on the thing, they can say, "well, we were getting it turned around until the dems lost their nerve ... They will repeat this 1000 times, the politicos, the Hannities, the Limbaughs, their braindead minions ...

10 years from now, all people will remember is how the dems lost Iraq ... They then get to reclaim the mantle as the party that supports the army, and off they go ...

Vietnam redoux ...

[TwilightGardener]

5. I am sure that it will be spun as a success for a while. The expectations

of what it will actually accomplish are very low. So you'll hear that today, only 15 bodies turned up on the streets instead of 30, or you'll hear that there's only 6 bombings a week instead of 10--it must be working! But the Dems in Congress must know that this surge was more than just a simple "let's try it" strategy. This is a way to get more troops over there, to increase our involvement, to prolong our stay as long as possible.

No one is ever going to come out and say with certainty that it is either working or failing, because even the diminishing of violence tells us nothing of what will happen if we were to leave, and because the situation is fluid--but it really isn't important. What BushCo is trying to do is to lull the public back to sleep with promises of success and victory, trying to recapture the upbeat attitude about the war in 2003. This will buy them time to build our permanent presence over there, and the public will eventually accept it, just the way we accept our military presence in places like Korea and Germany.

[Babel_17]

6. The bar is set so low

as to be almost meaningless.

In areas in Baghdad where US troops patrol in force fewer bodies are being dumped on the street = success.