Gus the weathervane! The ill winds blowing from Kos must have shifted again.

1) Your analogy rests on the baseless theory that Churchill’s rah-rah lying somehow saved the day. The levels of troop morale (either Axis & Allies) and public morale weren’t measured back then; and even if they had been, the degree to which Churchill’s lies affected them would be hard to tease out. You’re making shit up, in other words. Revisionist history at its finest. The fact is: the team with the best cheerleaders doesn’t always win– it’s the players and the plays they run that make the difference.

2) Likewise, what evidence do you have that accurate reports of what’s happening in Iraq have gone anywhere to increase the morale of the insurgents? Every leader of every side in every war (or sports contest or political election or corporate strategy session or religious meeting) has a responsibility to psych up his guys from the inside and talk them up to outsiders. As long as the press aren’t making shit up (like you), then that means they’re doing their job. If you want propaganda, move to North fucking Korea, you hideous toad. Remember Superman’s “Truth, Justice and the American Way”? A free people deserves, and must demand, the Truth. Accept no substitutes! Take a good look at yourself in the mirror– what perverse twists have you perpetrated upon your own brain to get to the point where you’re actually encouraging public officials to lie even more than they already do?! Orwell is spinning in his grave, sonny. Not to mention that W & co. aren’t the sort to let a good opportunity to lie go to waste.
The insurgency in Iraq is largely made up, as Rummy said, of “dead-enders”– former Baathist Sunnis who are now Shit Outta Luck, with nothing to lose except the many tons of ordnance that they took with them. They have had continued success doing what they do against us. They can’t “win” anything decisively, cuz they’re never getting back in power. All they wanna do is fuck shit up, which doesn’t require much in the way of morale-boosting. The relatively few jihadis there also have their own MO’s. Or is Fox News aiding and abetting them every time they put up Zarqawi ‘s picture and say what an evil bastard he is?

3) Exactly which “press” reports are so down on our doings in Iraq? Who has bothered to use the word “quagmire” lately? (It’s so six-months-ago, get with it!) Everyone is being pretty patient, as far as I have seen, about the handover to Iraqi troops. It’s not about “winning” or “losing” anymore– as if we could even recognize when those happened, since the mission there has been extremely vague beyond deposing Saddam– it’s only a matter of when we’re gonna significantly reduce our troop strength there, not if.

4) The fighters in-country on both sides know what’s going on around them. They’re not stupid, especially with the internet and world-wide media outlets. The bad guys aren’t watching frickin’ CNN and Jon Stewart– I’m sure they have their own myspace pages, podcasts and blogs now. That was a little joke, but you know what I mean. Al-Jazeera, etc. will say what they will say no matter what US media are saying. Aren’t they teaching you anything useful in Int’l Relations school?

And this post isn’t really about out SIR either