Burying the Lede on Russia, Iran, and Syria
[guest post by JVW]
Burying the lede is a common journalistic pitfall in which the most interesting aspect of a story is put in a subordinate role to a less-important aspect. It can be done as a result of ignorance on the part of the reporter and editor, but it can also be a sneaky way to insert an agenda or bias into the reporting of what are otherwise supposed to be straightforward news accounts. Running a lede paragraph stating that The Titanic set steam from Southampton six days ago as the largest, most expensive, and must luxurious cruise ship ever built and then mentioning in paragraph six that it hit an iceberg and sank would be a classic example of this sort of reporting.
Arthur Herman over at National Review Online points out today a great example in which the reader is left to wonder how much agenda and bias might have come in to play in a recent New York Times article that clearly buries the lede. Ostensibly about how the advanced weaponry and updated tactics Russia has brought to the battle against opposition groups in Syria has impressed military observers in the west, the real interesting part of the Times article comes in paragraph three:
Russia’s jets have struck in support of Syrian ground troops advancing from areas under the control of the Syrian government, and might soon back an Iranian-led offensive that appeared to be forming in the northern province of Aleppo on Wednesday. That coordination reflects what American officials described as months of meticulous planning behind Russia’s first military campaign outside former Soviet borders since the dissolution of the Soviet Union.
Here is what Herman of NRO notices about that paragraph:
This confirms what many of us have suspected: Moscow and Tehran were only waiting for Obama to commit himself to a nuclear deal with Iran and then present it to the Senate and the UN Security Council, before they made their joint move on Syria. “The broad outlines were decided months ago,” said Lieutenant General Richard Zahner the Army’s former top intelligence officer in Moscow. Those plans were developed in late July, to be exact, when Iranian Quds Force commander Qassim Suleimani traveled to Moscow—in other words, at the same time that Iran was negotiating the details of its nuclear deal with Obama and Kerry.
The next question is: Did the president and his foreign policy team know? The story at the time was that the White House was caught flat-footed when Putin began setting up his new military base at Latakia in Syria. This story strongly suggests otherwise, that letting the Russians and Iranians intervene to save Syrian dictator Bashar Assad, and letting Putin become the new power broker in the Middle East with Russian boots on the ground and Russian fighters in the air, was part of the price Obama was willing to pay to get a deal, any deal, with the mullahs on their nuclear program. [author’s original emphasis]
By now it is clear to everyone except the most ridiculous die-hard that Obama’s Middle East policy has been disastrous, and will have a harmful effect on efforts at peace and tranquility in that region for years to come. Barack Obama didn’t invent the idea of cutting deals with adversaries to wind-down ongoing conflict, but no one has pursued it with less moral seriousness and more unearned self-regard than this President. We walk away from the battle, tail tucked between our legs, with no true allies left and no sense that our presence there ever accomplished much of anything. Yet hardly anyone in our faculty lounges or editorial conference rooms seems to notice or care. It would be one thing if Obama truly intended to wash our hands of the entire Middle East, yet key allies of the administration are pushing for the U.S. to open our doors to refugees from the same country which we have just left to be sorted out by Russia, Iran, and ISIS. It would be low comedy were it not high tragedy.
– JVW
Aren’t we all glad that with Syria, Libya, Iraq, and — well, for the most part — Afghanistan out of the way, Obama and Kerry can turn their full attention to the Israel-Palestine conflict?
JVW (ba78f9) — 10/16/2015 @ 12:55 pmImportant (and excellent!) post, JVW. The Jackass-in-Chief has put our nation and our national security in a very tight spot. Was it the result of his arrogant, narcissistic fecklessness? Was it by design?
Colonel Haiku (0f4bb0) — 10/16/2015 @ 1:11 pmI am not so sure of the link. Obama would have let them foing it, deal or no deal. They may have held off to make sure no one had even more reason to object, but they could be sure Obama would not care.
kishnevi (9cb6b5) — 10/16/2015 @ 1:26 pmWell Mike doran, put the Iran deal as the linch pin to everything from the Ukraine to syria
narciso (58423e) — 10/16/2015 @ 1:54 pmI don’t think most people would care. Any Iranian deal supporter would just state that the deal was only about a nuclear program.
Dejectedhead (89aabe) — 10/16/2015 @ 1:56 pmI love it.
http://www.americanthinker.com/images/bucket/2015-10/195392_5_.jpg
Rev. Barack Hussein Hoagie™ (f4eb27) — 10/16/2015 @ 1:59 pmRussia’s offensive will be successful because Putin’s rules of engagement will allow his military to actually kill people. Like every other failure of obama’s his rules of engagement for our military did not allow them to actually kill people. So, it is no wonder we could not achieve success once obama was in the white house.
Jim (a9b7c7) — 10/16/2015 @ 3:11 pmAs bad as abandoning the ME is what Obama’s doing is resetting the globe to the conditions before the US ensured freedom of the seas and trade monopolizing (from his pt of view) control of the world’s resources and erasing the national boundaries drawn by Western colonial powers. When he’s done the US will be militarily powerless and financially strapped to boss to do anything about the new rules that will be imposed on US.
crazy (cde091) — 10/16/2015 @ 3:39 pmYes, we are stuck with another 15 months of President Azzhole Obama
Neo (d1c681) — 10/16/2015 @ 6:26 pmI want to know where is the outrage on the part of our veterans and the families of those slain in Iraq and Afghanistan now that Obama has walked away from Iraq opening the country to the hounds from hell and is on the verge of doing same in Afghanistan. Where is the outrage from the families of the 3000 murdered on 9/11 as Gitmo is systematically emptied of terrorists including some connected to 9/11. I don’t get it. We won the war in Iraq. Obama wasn’t serious about a Status of Forces agreement, so the Iraqi government didn’t exactly beg us to stay. The question is never raised by reporters, never came up in the debates so far. WHERE IS THE OUTRAGE????
sam (00e239) — 10/16/2015 @ 10:47 pmObama’s approach to the foreign policy reminds me of an exchange from “The Simpsons”:
Homer: “Why aren’t you making any business deals?”
Bart: *whining* “I’ll do it this afternoon!”
Obama is a colossal screw-up who wanted the title of president but the workload that comes with it. It will take the next president two terms just to clean up the mess he’s made. The nation will be an infinitely better place once that moron is out of office.
tops116 (d094f8) — 10/17/2015 @ 6:38 amSam, we won the war in Iraq like we won the cold war. And now we have socialists and communists controlling the democrat party and even running for president. I can only assume it’s only a matter of time until the democrats find a way to get moslems infiltrated through or government the way they did commies then tear up the Constitution in favor of Sharia law.
What’s the one word you never hear a democrat say when talking about our enemies? Victory.
Rev. Barack Hussein Hoagie™ (f4eb27) — 10/17/2015 @ 6:47 amInteresting, yes. Awfully coincidental that this whole organized military campaign started right after Goofy signed the nuke deal.
Can we survive another year of this guy?
Israel is going to start fighting back soon. Once the Palis get the intifada into full swing and invade the holy sites, WWIII will have officially begun.
Patricia (5fc097) — 10/17/2015 @ 8:09 amOf course chess is Russia’s national passtime, why expect a crack whore to endure six moves?
The real question is who wins in the longer term? China, Russia, an alliance including India?
We do know America is toast, it’s like the match has been thrown, our government is worse than none at all.
DNF (2e827d) — 10/17/2015 @ 8:15 amGreetings:
My favorite “burying the lede” anecdote comes from the AP via the San Francisco Commicle (aka Chronicle). The story was about a report by the Centers for Disease Control about new AIDS/HIV infection rates. The CDC reported that most demographics had decreasing rates of new infections. However, down in paragraph 13 (of 14), the AP reported that such was not the case for male homosexuals (you know, the “gays”).
And so it goes.
11B40 (6abb5c) — 10/17/2015 @ 9:08 amhttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ceO0qV57Xo4
mg (31009b) — 10/17/2015 @ 9:19 amSounds like Stones “hip shake”, mg.
Colonel Haiku (0f4bb0) — 10/17/2015 @ 9:48 amCan we survive another year of this guy?
Regrettably, more than you realize. After all, he is a reflection of how stupidly liberal this society has become, because although his ratings in various opinion polls isn’t great, they’re still far higher than such a leftist goon and nitwit should be receiving, particularly at this late date, and still above that of the far less pathetic George W Bush.
Mark (f713e4) — 10/17/2015 @ 10:06 amVlad Putin: [voice over the phone] Alright, Barry… you got the phone to yourself? Are you alone?
Colonel Haiku (0f4bb0) — 10/17/2015 @ 10:14 amBarry Obama: [into the phone] Well, yeah.
Vlad Putin: You know who this is?
Barry Obama: Well, yeah, I got an idea. How’s that Syria working out for ya?
Vlad Putin: Circumstances have changed, Barry.
Barry Obama: Well, what do ya mean?
Vlad Putin: Things have changed, circumstances, Barry… force majeure, boots on the ground.
Barry Obama: How’s Reggie?
Vlad Putin: [puzzled] Who’s Reggie?
Barry Obama: My wife! What the-?
Vlad Putin: Oh… right. He… er, she’s alright, but there’s a few people in Syria who aren’t so okay, I’ll tell you that.
Barry Obama: What the heck are ya talking about? Let’s just finish this deal up here.
Vlad Putin: Blood has been shed, Barry.
Barry Obama: What the heck do ya mean?
Vlad Putin: your deal and your so-called LEGACY… they’re dead.
Barry Obama: Oh, jeez!
Vlad Putin: That’s right, we need more concessions.
Barry Obama: What the heck are ya talking about? What do you fellas have yourself mixed up in?
Vlad Putin: Never mind that. We need more concessions…
Barry Obama: [interrupting] This was supposed to be a no rough stuff type deal!
Vlad Putin: [angry] DON’T EVER INTERRUPT ME, BARRY! JUST SHUT THE F*CK UP!
that we’re just an oil shock away from recession gives food stamp a lot of cover
and putin has the missiles in theater what can induce that shock at his whim
once failmericans start hurting economically they won’t give a crap about jews or freedom or isis or putin
they just want their ebt cards to swipe
that’s all failmericans want
a president that makes it swipe
happyfeet (831175) — 10/17/2015 @ 1:45 pmAfghanistan, Persia, the Levant — these are all traditional areas of struggle in the Great Game. The Brits, French, Turks & Russians have been playing it for centuries; it is the game of empires. But Obama has, at a stroke, actually achieved a position in Syria in which both its ground and air forces are in active military combat to support its proxy.
America largely took over Britain’s historic role in the Great Game after WW2. And we used to know how to play, and how important it was to win (or at least keep our enemies from winning). In particular — because of its chillingly close parallels to the present — consider this fairly recent history:
During the 1972 Yom Kippur Arab-Israeli War, in which Soviet client-states Egypt and Syria launched a sneak attack on Israel, the USSR had actively supplied an entire spectrum of arms (planes, tanks, the works), and continued to do so during the attacks. But no Soviet soldiers were on the ground, nor airmen in the sky. The Soviets had never been involved in military operations in the Middle East; it was important to the interests of America and its allies (including but not limited to NATO) that that never be permitted.
But when Nixon hastily began resupplying the Israelis and the tide of the war suddenly turned in Israel’s favor on the ground and in the air, then the Soviets were suddenly desperate to become more involved in order to save Syria and Egypt from complete collapse. Here’s what happened next, as told by the official archives of the U.S. State Department (boldface mine):
So to avoid exactly the situation that Putin has now achieved with utterly no opposition from Obama, Nixon was willing to overtly threaten Brezhnev with global thermonuclear war. The Soviets blinked; the Bear retreated from the Eagle.
Putin must count himself the most fortunate
Beldar (fa637a) — 10/17/2015 @ 2:21 pmczarleader of Russia ever, to have such a clueless and feckless opponent!Gak: Garbled my lede!
should be–>
Beldar (fa637a) — 10/17/2015 @ 2:24 pmOh — and as to whether Nixon was or wasn’t speaking for the American electorate and doing its wishes: Keep in mind that in winning reelection to his second term a month later, he swept all but Massachusetts and the District of Columbia, versus the Dems’ George McGovern.
Speaking of whom: Tell me, those of you old enough to remember McGovern: Does he remind you of any Democratic politicians who are currently prominent in the news? Any other long-time small-state hard-left Democratic senators who want to drag the Democratic Party all the way over with them? (At least McGovern didn’t shout all the time, and at least he pretended not to be a socialist.)
Beldar (fa637a) — 10/17/2015 @ 2:30 pmYes, Beldar, I remember the days you’ve written about… and how happy I was to be driving a car that got around 30 MPG in ’74 and, later, ’79.
Colonel Haiku (2601c0) — 10/17/2015 @ 2:44 pmYes, George was always the progressive. Free food was big on his agenda. Although he was a W.W. 2 decorated pilot I think. I remember him being against Nam early on, say 62, maybe later on. The bumper sticker I recall read “Don’t blame me I’m from Massachusetts”.- After the Watergate break in.
mg (31009b) — 10/17/2015 @ 3:06 pmMy favorite of that time was Everett Dirksen of Illinois. One of his many great quotes – “When a member of the house moves to the senate, he raises the I Q of both bodies”.
mg (31009b) — 10/17/2015 @ 3:34 pm1. JVW:
That’s already saying something wrong.
It isn’t an Israel-Palestine conflict. It’s an Israeli- Arab conflict.
Mohammed Abbas of the Palestinian Authority has said quite openly and explicitly that he won’t agree to anything without the permission of the Arab League, although some people weren’t listening.
The people conspiring to isolate Israel (especially from Arabs – these ideas of democracy and rotation in office could be contagious!!) are hiding behind the Palestinians, who are not acting independently at all, and never have. None of the factions.
And Abbas and the PA are getting money – or at least promises of money – from them – some actual money too – like money to give to families of terrorists, of which they can take a commission – and then there’s the factors of fear and cronyism.
Sammy Finkelman (6c2cdd) — 10/17/2015 @ 5:17 pmBeldar @ 21:
Actually, they were, secretly, in Egypt in 1970, during the “war of attrition” and Israeli pilots were in aerial combat with Soviet pilots (there being not enough good Egyptian pilots)
But not during the 1973 war. (On July 18, 1972, Anwar Sadat announced the expulsion of Soviet military advisors from Egypt, so they weren’t there any longer.)
The Soviet Union possibly could have intervened in the 1973 war, but, if so, was scared off by Henry Kissinger’s military alert. At any rate a ceasefire was agreed to.
Sammy Finkelman (6c2cdd) — 10/17/2015 @ 5:24 pmSo it’s war once again:
http://directorblue.blogspot.com/2015/10/austria-is-drowning-in-massive-amounts.html?m=1
The Lord of the Flies has his season of play.
DNF (2e827d) — 10/19/2015 @ 5:06 am