Juan Cole Is At It Again

His latest piece in Salon: A surge of phony spin on Iraq

There's only one phony in this post - Juan Cole.

Administration supporters have been upbeat about the way in which some Sunni Arab populations, especially in al-Anbar Province, have turned against the foreign jihadi volunteers that were behind much mindless violence. These jihadis, styled "al-Qaida" by the Bush administration, however, were never the core of the insurgency.

If he read Christopher Hitchens' Fighting the "Real" Fight, Cole would know the perils of playing down the al Qaeda component. If Cole read Michael Yon, who has been reporting in Iraq for years, it is all about al Qaeda. And sure, there are undoubtedly Iranian elements, along with Sunni on Shi'a violence, but look at a day in the life of some U.S. troops on patrol, and what do you notice all over the place? al Qaeda.

Talk about grasping at straws:

And what of the supposed "good news" on the military side of the equation? Before July ended, a spate of wire service and newspaper reports began appearing, saying that only 74 U.S. troops had been killed by Iraqi guerrillas that month, the lowest total since November and a sign that the surge was working. But the reporters and editors who gave U.S. headlines such as "U.S. Death Toll in Iraq in July Expected to Be Lowest in '07" (New York Times) were being assiduously spun. Bush officials were undoubtedly pushing the information that produced these headlines in an attempt to give Republicans in Congress some good news to take back to their constituents during the August recess.

Here's a major hole in his argument: Major attacks decline in Iraq. Declined by 50%. Wow, bad timing to publish a highly skeptical assessment of the war, Mr. Cole.

Here he does a bang up job playing the impartial, passive analyst by smearing one of the top Generals on the ground:

Lt. Gen. Raymond Odierno, war propagandist-in-chief in Baghdad

Cole, like the Democrats, is on the run from truth, just like al Qaeda is on the run. As even the AP reports on military gains, Cole sees only evidence to further his ideological message:

Some proponents of the surge may have rightly argued that an effort to take on the guerrillas and militias will produce higher casualties in the short term -- but some of them are also saying the strategy has already begun working and is producing lower casualties and more security for Iraqis, which is a blatant falsehood.

I've got a blatant falsehood for Juan Cole: Salon writer uses phony bin Laden tape to further his porous argument to discredit the Bush administration.

It is very telling that Cole's piece comes at this time, when not only is there abundant proof that the surge working, but even steadfast European media critics of the war are reporting on the good news.

Well done, Mr. Cole.

See how Juan Cole reacts to criticism in this email exchange I had with him, asking him to post a retraction of his false claims that bin Laden issued a "new tape":

Inaccurate Facts in your "Bush's Incompetence" piece in Salon
Nick Brunetti nick.brunetti@gmail.com
Mon, Jul 30, 2007 at 12:06 PM
To: jrcole@umich.edu

Mr. Cole,

I direct you to your reference of a "new" Osama Bin Laden video in a recent piece you wrote for Salon. Please take note that this video of Bin Laden in fact dates back to 2001, as was reported by numerous media outlets and Blogs days after the video was released. This "new" Bin Laden video was exposed at least one week prior to the publication of your article, which calls in to question many fundamental aspects of your narrative.

I request a published retraction/correction to this signifcant factual error. Given that the alleged "new" Bin Laden tape is central to the argument you have laid out, you owe your readers the truth, so they can be properly informed.


Thank you,


Nick Brunetti-Lihach

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Cole, Juan
Mon, Jul 30, 2007 at 12:19 PM
To: Nick Brunetti nick.brunetti@gmail.com

Dear Nick:

I watched the video in Arabic. What was old in it was the second part, with footage of various jihadis. Bin Laden's conversation at the beginning in which he said the Prophet Muhammad himself sought martyrdom was new, and I have not seen it before. If you can provide me a transcript of an earlier videotape with that footage I will of course be glad to retract.

chers Juan

http://www.juancole.com/

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Nick Brunetti
Tue, Jul 31, 2007 at 9:43 AM
To: "Cole, Juan" jrcole@umich.edu

Mr. Cole,

The quotes and links below should provide sufficient proof.

ABC:

"Experts who study al Qaeda videos told ABC News they had not previously seen the clip of bin Laden, which was released with little fanfare and contains no date references, but say it is most likely an unreleased portion of an earlier message."

CBS:
[T]he chief editor of the Qatar-based Arab television station Al-Jazeera, which has aired videos showing bin Laden in the past, said Monday that people at the station had seen the same tape months ago and believed it was recorded in October. "This is the same tape that we had four months ago, which we didn't show because we didn't think it was newsworthy," said the editor, Ibrahim Helal. "There was nothing new in it and seemed to be a PR stunt. We think it was recorded sometime in October [2001]."

More:

Laura Mansfield: http://www.lauramansfield.com/j/default.asp

http://gatewaypundit.blogspot.com/2007/07/al-qaeda-releases-new-osamatape.html

http://newsbusters.org/node/14108


Regards,


Nick Brunetti

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Cole, Juan
Tue, Jul 31, 2007 at 12:08 PM
To: Nick Brunetti nick.brunetti@gmail.com

In other words, the footage was new and had not been seen before. Personally, I don't believe it was that old. Bin Laden looked older to me in it than in 2004.

cheers Juan

http://www.juancole.com/

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Nick Brunetti nick.brunetti@gmail.com
Sat, Aug 4, 2007 at 11:15 AM
To: "Cole, Juan" jrcole@umich.edu

Professor Cole,

I understand that the entirety of the old Osama footage may have not been seen before, but that hardly would characterize it as "new," which you wrote of. You wrote that "a new videotape of Osama bin Laden surfaced" in your piece for Salon.

That implies to the reader that bin Laden created and released a new video. Clearly, given the links to the evidence in prior emails, the accuracy of describing this as a "new videotape" is highly dubious, even misleading.

You wrote:

"But the very fact that bin Laden could still deliver his poisonous message to the Muslim world six years after his attack on New York and Washington killed some 3,000 people is first and foremost a remarkable testament to the incompetence and fecklessness of the Bush administration. The tape, the new NIE and events in Pakistan and Afghanistan all suggest that, shockingly, al-Qaida is more deadly now than at any time during the past half-decade."

Since the tape is not in fact new, this would detract from the crux of your argument, would it not?

There are many things for which to justly criticize the Bush administration, their handling of post-invastion Iraq, for example. However, given that this tape's authenticity as "new" is so strongly in doubt - according to mainstream media outlets and middle eastern news agencies - I feel you should at the very least provide a post script to your piece, if not a retraction.


Nick Brunetti-Lihach


Cole, Juan
Sun, Aug 5, 2007 at 12:22 AM
To: Nick Brunetti nick.brunetti@gmail.com

Actually, Bush should issue a retraction of all his boasting and
bluster, since Bin Laden is in fact out there still taunting us, and that is
what I said, and it is true.

cheers Juan


Nick Brunetti nick.brunetti@gmail.com
Sun, Aug 5, 2007 at 2:29 PM
To: "Cole, Juan" jrcole@umich.edu

Two wrongs don't make a right, sir.

Seizing on evidence which is not credible in furtherance of an argument casts only greater doubt on your own credibility.

I hope you are more honest with your students than you are to your readers.


Nick Brunetti-Lihach

That's Juan Cole... when cornered in an argument, just go into denial mode and rant about President Bush.