Max Boot to Bush followers: stop blaming the media.

"The press had better hope we win this war, because if we don't, a lot of people will blame the media." -- Putz, 3/05/06

I've been pretty hard on Max Boot previously and his "there's not enough bloodshed in Afghanistan" piece was appalling.

But credit where credit is due here.

IF WE WIND UP losing the war in Iraq, as now appears likely (though not inevitable), many conservatives know who to blame: the press, or, in blogger-speak, the MSM (mainstream news media). Just as it did during the Vietnam War, a myth is likely to develop in which America's valiant fighting men and women were stabbed in the back by unpatriotic, even treasonous, reporters.

First of all, it's nice to see that Boot concedes that the Vietnam/stabbed-in-the-back myth is just a myth. It's sad that it's rare for a hard right conservative to accept the truth about why we lost in Vietnam, but when they do, we should encourage them.

Also, note the fascinating phrase, "...many conservatives know who to blame." That's about as succinct a criticism of the intellectual dishonesty and delusion of media-bashing conservatives you'll find anywhere.

Are you listening Putz and Michelle Malkin?

Back to Boot, who, after praising the courage of the reporters covering the war and noting the 109 who've been killed doing so, ends with a flourish:

If you wanted to figure out what was happening over the last four years, you would have been infinitely better off paying attention to their writing than to what the president or his top generals were saying. If we fail to achieve our goals in Iraq — which the administration defines as a "unified, stable, democratic and secure nation" — it won't be the fault of the ink-stained wretches or even their blow-dried TV counterparts. To argue otherwise deflects blame from those who deserve it, in the upper echelons of the administration and the armed forces. Perhaps that's the point.

I don't think Boot should be blaming the armed forces. They just go where the President tells them to go, and Iraq was a fool's errand. And don't forget about the rubberstamping GOP Congress. But this is progress.

First Rich Lowry, now this. I'm just not sure what to make of this sudden realization by conservatives that the evil liberal media doesn't control space and time. I guess not all conservatives are as intellectually dishonest as Putz.