Beltway Media Pleased to Distort GOP Position on Iraq

[rodeodance]

http://www.alternet.org/mediaculture/40920/

Beltway Media Pleased to Distort GOP Position on Iraq

By David Sirota, WorkingForChange.com.

Posted August 28, 2006.

Republicans are brazenly calling for indefinite deployments of huge troop forces in Iraq -- if only the press would come out and report it that way.

In the Washington Post's front page story this Sunday about the Democratic Party's position on the Iraq War, the newspaper makes a highly misleading statement about the Republican Party's position. After a comment by Montana Democratic Senate nominee Jon Tester demanding a "plan to move the troops out of Iraq," the Post claims flatly that "no Republican is advocating that the United States maintain high troop levels indefinitely."

One could stretch to make the argument that such a statement is technically true -- no Republican has gone on record saying word-for-word "I want to keep large amounts of U.S. troops in Iraq forever." However, top Republican leaders have repeatedly gone on record making statements or taking concrete steps that support actually keeping large amounts of U.S. troops in Iraq indefinitely.

For example, less than three months ago, Reuters reported that "congressional Republicans killed a provision in an Iraq war funding bill that would have put the United States on record against the permanent basing of U.S. military facilities in that country." In other words, despite the Post's claim, Republicans just a few months ago actually went on record as supporting the concept of a permanent, indefinite military presence in Iraq (you can see the video of the congressional debate here). Congressional Democrats' efforts to prevent U.S. troops from being in Iraq indefinitely came after the BBC reported that the administration made massive emergency spending request for base construction that the House Appropriations Committee noted was "of a magnitude normally associated with permanent bases."

A week after that request, "top US General John Abizaid refused to rule out a long-term presence" in Iraq. In fact, this hasn't just been going on this year. The Chicago Tribune reported in 2004 that Bush administration military planners were moving forward with plans for "constructing 14 enduring bases, long-term encampments for the thousands of American troops.".........

[Lerkfish]

1. they aren't worried about an unpopular policy, they're worried about

PERCEPTION of an unpopular policy.

[zbdent]

2. That's how they get away with it ... Repukes say

"I didn't say x ..." when xy is what they said, which conveys x ... and the media swallows ...