Gulf of credibility

Updated.

The Navy - our Navy - is reporting Iranian harassment in the Persian Gulf. Under ordinary civilian leadership, despite the harsh lesson of the Gulf of Tonkin, I would reflexively credit these reports as true, as I did in the Gulf of Sidra.

Under the rain of bullshit during the reign of the Bushists, it's much harder. Even events that actually did happen, such as this one, get meaning imputed to them that they just don't deserve. One core lesson of Iraq - that the Cheney shadow government is happy to trump up a cause of war - cannot be ignored.

Here's what I think:

• The Iranian "gunboats" were very light Zero-like boats. The boats were small but hard-hulled, probably fiberglass.
  
• If the Navy had perceived the objects the Iranians dropped to be a threat, the incident would not have transpired without weapons fire. The U.S. ships would have shot them up. They were nothing.
• Admiral Roughead is overselling this incident to please the Bushists.
• The Iranians were playing chicken; there are idiots in Iran who want war, too. They probably had no idea of the personal space a navy needs in a tight strait. They're probably too young to have even heard of the Exocet.
• Vice Admiral Cosgriff did not specify that the translated content of the "aggressive transmissions" was known to the vessels' captains in real time. How credible is it that three minor vessels would have a Farsi translator on board when the whole U.S. military can't field more than a few dozen Arabic translators? The transmissions were in English. Oddly, in ABC's video, they were easier to hear than the American radio operator.
  

The upshot: I'd guess that there was a routine incident report that someone in Washington spun to prominence, something the commanders at sea put out of their minds as soon as it was over.

My skepticism is the consequence of the Bushists' gulf of credibility. The high military officers who have taken their propaganda orders from the White House will have to be retired by the next Democratic President, if only to restore the honor of their services.

Duh!

The Boston Globe has this nugget on p.2:

A White House report to Congress on Friday concluded that the development of Iraq's security forces has been "slower than hoped."

Doesn't the White House ever get embarrassed?

Note: In the Globe story, not a single quote from a war or escalation opponent. Not even one.

Unthinkable

Duhbya can't think of anything to change except his slogans. So, the Boston Globe tells us:

President Bush will endorse the broad outlines of a plan to bring home 30,000 troops from Iraq by the middle of next year if conditions are favorable, a senior administration official said yesterday.

Is it just me, or is this the same bullshit we've been hearing since the "end" of major combat operations in 2003, four years ago, stripped only of "stay the course"?

The media also can't frame this story any other way. Nancy Pelosi has a juicy quote that gets right to the heart of the dispute. It should have been paragraph 3, but instead it is relegated to the last paragraph. All seven of the quotes or paraphrases on the web front come from Republican - except the one from Joe Lieberman. Now that's balance!

Farah Stockman and Bryan Bender have done good work in the past, so I'm guessing this story's Republican slant comes from the ever credulous Peter Canellos, the Globe's DC bureau chief.

For Duhbya and the media, any other narrative is unthinkable.