Stewart Challenges Kristol, Says O’Hanlon And Pollack ‘Are Very Hawkish Guys’

[babylonsister]

http://thinkprogress.org/2007/08/14/stewart-kristol-journalism/

Stewart Challenges Kristol, Says O’Hanlon And Pollack ‘Are Very Hawkish Guys’

On the Daily Show last night, host Jon Stewart challenged Weekly Standard editor Bill Kristol’s claim that Brookings’ analysts Michael O’Hanlon and Ken Pollack are “skeptics of the war.”

Stewart pressed Kristol on why actual skeptics of the war should trust war hawks such as him “to undo the terrible thing” they created by pushing for the invasion of Iraq and making failed predictions at every turn. “Don’t trust me,” responded Kristol. “Trust skeptics of the war like Mike O’Hanlon and Ken Pollack.”

“They weren’t really skeptics,” Stewart said. “Ken Pollack would like us to invade Iran, for God’s sake…those are very hawkish guys.” Watch it at link~

By challenging Kristol, Stewart has done something that most mainstream news outlets have failed to do, which is correctly label O’Hanlon and Pollack as hawks who supported both the initial invasion of Iraq and the President’s escalation strategy. Much of the mainstream media has referred to the two as “vocal critics” of the Bush administration.

Even though O’Hanlon has admitted that he “was not a critic of this war,” his and Pollack’s op-ed has enabled pro-war hawks like Kristol and Vice President Cheney to claim validation for their opinions from alleged critics. By labeling O’Hanlon and Pollack as critics, the media is giving political cover to the same voices who misguidedly pushed America into war in the first place.

UPDATE: During the interview, Kristol also said “it’s not a bad idea” to invade Iran and that Americans should let Iraq “play…out for the next six months.”

[swag]

1. Yeah, Americans should give Iraq another Friedman unit.

[groovedaddy]

2. I don't view these apologists views of the war

much differently than I do Hillary's (& other Dems) who VOTED FOR THE WAR, then criticize Bush (rightly so) for his prosecution of the war and then say they will get us out (appeasing the base?) followed by "we could be there for years." But, hey, maybe these people know something about peak oil that most of the public are ignorant of and in these apologists view, they are saving civilization as we know it (if that's what this is!?!).
Still, the trend towards monopolization, privitization and globalization tend to make me think that there are alternatives to petroleum and coal that are being squelched because of this trend toward monopolization.

[KharmaTrain]

3. Kristol Didn't Deny It

To me that was telling. I was expecting the "war critic" talking point to pour from William the Bloody's piehole. He didn't even challenge Jon.

One more point that I haven't seen mentioned here...but I think Mr. Kristol just kicked another Friedman. Note how he said how we should let things "play out for the next sixth month". Now wasn't the clock on this "surge" supposed to have started in March? Not according to Billy boy...the game now is to push this "give it time" or "things are improving" crap as far past the Repugnican primaries as possible.

[babylonsister]

4. I'm not surprised; that's his job, to further this neocon agenda. nt

[Cha]

5. Yeah, giving cover to the great

brainwashed. It's worth paying attention in AMerica, TODAY.

[bbgrunt]

6. a couple of things I noticed:

1) Mr. Kristol is not much taller than John, but he has an enormous slimy head.

2) John disarmed him so swiftly and effortlessly, that I can only conclude that the rest of the corporate media is obviously complicit in pushing his lies since they don't make the slightest effort to discredit him and keep putting his ugly mug on tv as if he had a clue.