UPDATE: Go here for a much better and earlier diary on the same piece.
The drumbeat goes on for a war with Iran, and reports like Michael R. Gordon are once again either too lazy, too stupid or too chickenhawk to put our government's spin to the reality test.
http://www.nytimes.com/...
More below the fold.
The story focuses on the
"explosively formed penetrator," a particularly deadly type of roadside bomb being used by Shiite groups in attacks on American troops in Iraq
Let's dissect this lazy, incompetent reporting piece by piece. First:
Attacks using the device have doubled in the past year, and have prompted increasing concern among military officers. In the last three months of 2006, attacks using the weapons accounted for a significant portion of Americans killed and wounded in Iraq, though less than a quarter of the total, military officials say.
How many attacks using this device? What is the new total? What is a "significant portion"? How much less than a quarter of the total is the actual number? How many killed vs. wounded?
Next:
Only a small fraction of the roadside bombs used in Iraq are explosively formed penetrators. But the device produces more casualties per attack than other types of roadside bombs.
Again, numbers please. What is a small fraction? How many total casualties for each type?
Next:
Any assertion of an Iranian contribution to attacks on Americans in Iraq is both politically and diplomatically volatile. The officials said they were willing to discuss the issue to respond to what they described as an increasingly worrisome threat to American forces in Iraq, and were not trying to lay the basis for an American attack on Iran.
HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA
Sorry, - gasp - couldn't breathe for a minute.
More: the evil Iranian operative:
The information includes interrogation reports from the raids indicating that money and weapons components are being brought into Iraq from across the Iranian border in vehicles that travel at night. One of the detainees has identified an Iranian operative as having supplied two of the bombs.
Who? What's his name? When did he supply the bombs in question? Where? Is he an official government operative? What exactly does it mean to be an Iranian operative?
This is maybe my favorite line, and it comes courtesy of Robert I. C. Gates:
Mr. Gates told reporters last week that he had heard there had been cases in which the weapon "can take out an Abrams tank."
Holy shit!!!! We lost TANKS (plural bolded) to one of these things? When? Where?
Look, Mr. Gordon: I don't know you from Adam, and I have to admit that I'm no Juan Cole, or even clammyc for that matter. I was raised in a small town, however, and I do know what bullshit smells like, and you have just taken a steaming silver tray of it from Arlington and deposited it right in the New York Times.
Stop being such a goddamned lazy nincompoop and get out there and confirm some of this propaganda before you put it on the page. Or maybe you never heard of this little thing called "The Run-Up to the Iraq War?"
God damn you and your stupid ilk. I hope you get drafted.
Please no comments about how sexy the "Explosively Formed Penetrator" sounds. Keep it in the bedroom, people!