Sunday’s New York Times was a “flood-the-zone” swamp of anti-war pieces. It’s going to help al Qaeda; it’s going to be conducted incompetently; and on and on. Some of this is worth doing: a newspaper’s job is to point out dangers ahead. But the sheer weight of it was Rainesianism at its least credible. Compare these two stories, for example, from the Times and the Washington Post. They’re both about al Qaeda. The money quote from the Times:
“An American invasion of Iraq is already being used as a recruitment tool by Al Qaeda and other groups,” a senior American counterintelligence official said. “And it is a very effective tool.”
There’s not much analysis of what a successful removal of Saddam would do to al Qaeda’s recruitment, nor much insight into the state of the terrorist organization in general. But the anti-war point will surely not have been missed by most readers. Now check out the Post’s al Qaeda story. Money quote:
“I believe the tide has turned in terms of al Qaeda,” said Rep. Porter J. Goss (R-Fla.), chairman of the House intelligence committee and a former CIA case officer. “We’re at the top of the hill.” Goss’s sentiment was echoed by a dozen other intelligence experts and law enforcement officials with regular access to information about U.S. counterterrorism operations. “For the first time,” Goss said, “they have more to fear from us than we have to fear from them.”
The stories aren’t mutually exclusive. But one is dealing mainly with the past and what we know; and one is dealing mainly with the unknowable future. One is news; the other is thinly veiled editorializing. (One good sign, however, is the Op-Ed page. In the last week, there have been pieces by real, not token, conservatives: Boris Johnson and Reuel Marc Gerecht. Methinks David Shipley, the new editor, is having an effect at opening up the page to new voices. Not a moment too soon.)
THE DEFECTIONS BEGIN: One major Kurdish die-hard Saddamite has switched sides in advance of conflict:
Jowhad Herki is chief of the powerful Herki tribe and since the 1960s has supported successive Baghdad regimes in putting down revolts by fellow Kurds. He arrived in northern Iraq via London after travelling there from Baghdad for medical treatment. He is a former member of the Iraqi parliament. “This is a major development that shows that they are abandoning the sinking ship,” said Hoshyar Zebari, a Kurdish leader in the northern autonomous zone. “It will have a major influence on other tribal leaders to close ranks because they have nothing to hope for from Saddam.”
Just a straw in the wind. Except it isn’t a wind. It’s a hurricane.
The Dish 