media succumbs to o'hanlon and pollack surge

i wrote the following to npr.org

Your report this afternoon (is that all things considered, c. 6 cst?) on opinion makers believing that the iraq surge is making "progress," reports that pundits Pollack and O'Hanlon work for the "center-left" Brookings Institution. You don't note that many, including the original AP report that your report appears to copy, call them critics of the war. They are neither. They both supported the war in 2003 and they supported the surge. So how is the fact that they think the surge is working (after a jaunt organized and paid for by the Dept. of Defense) news? Pollack is employed by the Saban Center for Middle East Studies, and I will let you do your own research as to what issue Haim Saban finds most pressing.

I am disappointed by your report (on the most pressing issue in the run-up to the Petraeus Report next month--which, of course, will not be written by Petraeus) for two reasons:

1. Your reporter did not seem to do even elemental fact-checking (see the readily available analysis at salon.com.
2. the surge can and will make "progress" forever. The US is fighting a tiny force. But the surge cannot win the peace. Sunnis don't want us there. Shias don't want us there. By huge margins, even in the same Brookings Institution report which your reporter did not appear to bother to read.
   

We could, for example, still be fighting in Vietnam. Bring 'em home, and let the long road to peace begin.