Subject: More on NPR, another miscalculation


More evaluations of the NPR story from two list recipients responding to my retraction:

1)

the W Post story was tacked on as a sort of afterthought following a very offcial sounding PR piece along the lines of only 7, warning shots, etc.
NPR would claim they mentioned the WP story, but the thrust, tone, and positioning I heard was Pentagon puff perspective.

2)

You have your whole family in the car, your country was invaded a week ago. Men with guns wave at you --  you are supposed to stop? Then they start firing at you -- again, you are supposed to stop? I am not impressed.

and another example of why this is such a disaster, even if you support the war:

U.S. officials concede they 'misjudged' Iraqi defections
USA TODAY--A three-month U.S. effort to persuade Iraq's generals and Baath Party leaders to surrender and oust Saddam Hussein is being scaled back after it failed to produce any significant defections, U.S. intelligence and military officials said. "We misjudged their tenacity," a senior U.S. intelligence official said of Iraq's leaders. "These guys are driven by a hatred (of the United States) that we may have underestimated." The failed effort appears to reflect a miscalculation by the Pentagon and CIA of the willingness or ability of Iraq's political and military leaders to overthrow Saddam. Officials said they believed that if they could get Iraq's leaders to surrender, support for the regime would crumble. They also thought a conflict inside Baghdad could be avoided. Now, they fear the war could last longer than expected.