Over the last nine months or so, I've used a lot of epithets to describe Jack Kelly. "Liar" has been a favorite, but "hypocrite" and "manipulator" have come in handy too. With Saturday's column I've got a new one: "coward".

Over the past years, he has taken a very public position supporting President Bush's policies on Iraq. Now, as every week brings more evidence that our approach to that nation is misguided only where it isn't directionless, rather than defend his position, or apologize and retreat, Kelly is desperately hunting for a scapegoat. Whose fault is our precarious position in Iraq? Not George Bush's and not the enthusiastic and optimistic war-boosters. Jack can't be wrong, so it has to be someone else.

Kelly is now joining a chorus of conservative writers calling for the heads of the troublesome media. But it's the war advocates who were wrong. They misjudged the nature of Iraqi nationalism, they helped to sell the bogus WMD rationale, and for months they papered over the warning signs of trouble--delaying calls for corrective action. Now, unable to say "We're sorry. We were wrong.", they are trotting the old lies of a biased press to cover their asses.

In his column, Jack Kelly is specifically blaming the media for our "loss" in Fallujah. Kelly's pattern, which he follows slavishly, even though by now many must be wise to his MO, is to only tell you half the story. He quite generous in ladling out the facts that support his preferred version of the facts, but he always leaves out a latter half of the story, the part that damns his case.

Here is what he left out, hoping that not too many of his readers have seen this story:

Fallujah emerging as Islamic mini-state With U.S. Marines gone and central government authority virtually nonexistent, Fallujah resembles an Islamic mini-state -- anyone caught selling alcohol is flogged and paraded in the city. Men are encouraged to grow beards and barbers are warned against giving "Western" hair cuts.

"After all the blood that was shed, and the lives that were lost, we shall only accept God's law in Fallujah," said cleric Abdul-Qader al-Aloussi, offering a glimpse of what a future Iraq may look like as the U.S.-led occupation draws to a close. "We must capitalize on our victory over the Americans and implement Islamic sharia laws."

The departure of the Marines under an agreement that ended the three-week siege last month has enabled hard-line Islamic leaders to assert their power in this once-restive city 30 miles west of Baghdad.

Some were active in defending the city against the Marines and have profited by a perception -- both here and elsewhere in Iraq -- that the mujahedeen, or Islamic holy warriors, defeated a superpower.

Under the agreement, the Marines handed security in the city to a new Fallujah Brigade made up largely of local residents and commanded by officers of Saddam Hussein's former army.

Kelly is right, the marines did not loose in Fallujah. But we did loose, and the media had nothing to do with it (do you really think that everyone in Fallujah has home delivery of The New York Times?). The fault lies with a fatally flawed policy. What happened is simple and clear: US Marines surrounded a rebellious city, bringing more than sufficient firepower to defeat the insurgents. They did their job well. They faced the enemy without wavering. But, once the marines were in a position to take the city by force, our political leaders decided that taking a muslim city by force would have consequences that the US was not prepared for. The civilian leadership never prepared a Plan "B". They never bothered to understand the difficulties of the undertaking, and they never bothered to think through the potential calamities that might in ensue. They believed their own happy-horseshit predictions of a short, easy conflict.

And the results are now known. Unable to make use of the sacrifices of the marines, a victory was handed to they very forces we opposed. Marines died, and now a conservative Islamic government controls Fallujah. And that had nothing to do with the reporting or the Op-Ed pages of any media organ in the US.
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