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Iraqis Say Deal Is Close For 2010 Pullout; American Media Curiously Indifferent |
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Maybe I’m missing something, but shouldn’t this story be huge? Today, two Iraqi officials indicated that Iraq and the US are close to an agreement to have all combat troops out by October 2010. (I would offer a quote, but it came from the AP).
US officials insist that no dates have been agreed on, but they have not denied that an agreement is close. The implications of this development are enormous, especially since the timeline roughly corresponds to what Obama has been calling for.
The Bush administration, along with McCain, has always contended that timelines are a bad idea and have left open the possibility for a long-term occupation. If this agreement comes to fruition, it would represent a complete reversal of policy for them. The only conceivable explanation would be that the Republicans are trying to undermine Obama’s increasingly popular anti-war stance and usurp the credit that Obama would have gotten for getting us out. It’s dirty, underhanded politics at its worst.
Shockingly, this story has not gotten much attention in the mainstream media. I first noticed it about 3:30 on Thursday afternoon (Eastern time) on Yahoo. It was the #2 story in their news section. Surprised that it wasn’t the lead story, I checked out seven other major news sites. None of them had the story at #1, either:
CNN, MSNBC, ABC, CBS, Google, and USA Today all had it at #2 or #3, behind the trial of Bin Laden’s limo driver and/or the saga of Detroit’s mayor. FOX, believe it or not, did not even have the story on its front page. It was down in the “World News” section at the bottom of the page. At 8:30 pm, I checked again, and all of these sites had moved the story off their front pages and into either US or world news. I couldn’t find any stations on TV covering the story.
Like I said, maybe I’m missing something. The end of US involvement in Iraq would be the story of the year, and one of the top stories of the decade. Granted, this is just the hearsay of two Iraqi officials, but it sure makes it seem like a complete Bush capitulation to the wishes of the Democrats is near - even though the Republicans will somehow try to claim it was what they planned on doing all along.
So someone please help me - why is this not huge news?
Also curious is the ffact that this Bush reversal is happening just as the Olympics and then the political conventions are set to dominate the headlines for the next month. Coincidence?