tell me something I don’t already know

The covers of most major metropolitan newspapers today trumpet what even a casual observer has known for months—and what many of us knew even earlier—there has been no drop in violence in Iraq since the Bush escalation (or “surge,” if you must) began early this year.

Three months into the new U.S. military strategy that has sent tens of thousands of additional troops into Iraq, overall levels of violence in the country have not decreased, as attacks have shifted away from Baghdad and Anbar, where American forces are concentrated, only to rise in most other provinces, according to a Pentagon report released yesterday.


Most articles go on to explain that efforts at bridging political and ethnic differences have so far failed, that sectarian killings have surpassed pre-escalation levels, and that suicide bombings in the January to April period have more than doubled.

Like I said, most of us in the reality-based dominion knew this would happen even before the first extra boot hit the blood-soaked Baghdad ground, but that’s not news, right? You want the “new” in news, don’t you? Well, here it is: all this violence means the Bush splurge is a success.

Don’t believe me? Just ask Tony Snow:

[W]hen you see things moving towards success, or when you see signs of success, that there are acts of violence.

Snow goes on to cite Palestine and Lebanon, in addition to Iraq, just to underscore. . . what. . . oh, yeah. . . HOW FUCKING INSANE THIS IS!

That the administration and its mouthpiece engage in Orwellian “War = Peace” doublespeak is, again, not news. That the assembled ladies and gentlemen of the press don’t gasp, laugh, or scream when every George, Dick, and Tony reiterates this crap is, alas, not really news anymore, either.