Eason Jordan summary of US Papers

Iraq Slogger summarizes how the press and the military are handling the war. Or maybe that should read mishandling...

With U.S. General David Petraeus officially taking charge as the U.S. military’s point man in Iraq today, one wonders why the NY Times, Washington Post, Wall Street Journal fail to even mention Petraeus’s name today. He’s “Mr. Surge,” and President Bush has bet his presidency on Petraeus and Iraqi Prime Minister Maliki succeeding in their effort to turn the tide in Iraq. But we must wait until tomorrow for word on the official change of command ceremony marking the transition from General Casey (confirmed this week as the new chief of the U.S. Army) to Petraeus.

The column is a litany of reported screw ups. There was a time when I wondered how so many things could go wrong and keep on going wrong but I am well past that point. Blunders such as these, like traffic jams or local fires, no longer make the news. The public seems more keen to find out the results of a celebrity autopsy than how to bring to an end the wholesale daily killing of innocent people in Iraq.