War Commentators

Andrew Sullivan and Josh Marshall are having it out over Iraq, here and here.

The second-guessers and opponents of the war are looking less prescient at this point. The radical strategy to deploy ground troops early and speed to Baghdad a la Patton encountered some setbacks, but it has become clear that the setbacks were minor. The strategy probably prevented oil-field vandalism and missiles from being shot into Israel. Nothing is guaranteed, and there could be bad times ahead; but the most dire circumstances that we could have faced at the outset have been avoided.

The television commentators have been falling all over themselves to point out how their colleagues were too pessimistic only a few days ago. It's always the "other networks." In reality, only Fox has remained measured among the television outlets, avoiding both chest-thumping and hand-wringing. Fox is not objective in the sense that the other networks would like it to be; it is unabashedly patriotic. But it somehow achieves more accuracy than the other outlets that strive for more detachment.