Time goes to bat for Al-Sadr

http://news.yahoo.com/s/time/20080511/wl_time/alsadrwinsanotherround

'Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki set out to break the back of the Mahdi Army in March, when he launched an offensive against areas the militia controls in the southern city of Basra. The Mahdi Army fought Iraqi forces to a standstill there while unleashing a daily hail of rockets and mortars on the Green Zone that left al-Maliki's government effectively the ones under siege. And when U.S. and Iraqi troops tried to press into Sadr City to chase the militia's mortar men and rocketeers, they barely managed to establish a foothold on the southern edge of the neighborhood before the situation stalemated.'

I watched a documentary over the weekend about Stalingrad. Reading this article reminded me of the pretty, tidy, completely fictional account of what was going on in the graveyard of the German Sixth Army fed to the German people. It was only when the first of the 3,000 (out of 250,000) German survivors got back home that the real story, in all its grim, bestial tragedy, was told. Whats going to happen to all those happy moonbats who are cheering on their latest mass-murderer heartthrob when he is killed by his own supporters for bringing complete disaster down on their heads? Whats going to happen when the unequivocal truth about Sadr City and Basra becomes universally known? Oh yeah, I remember- they'll do what they always do and cover their ears and shout la-la-la I can't hear you so its not true. They will slink away and deny they ever heard of Moqtada Al-Sadr/Saddam Hussein/Yassir Arafat/Muammar Kaddaffi etc. They will deny that they were cheering him on to victory, and wishing death and defeat on our soldiers. They will change the subject as fast as possible, and try to pretend that they aren't traitors and terrorist-lovers.

This article reads like it was written by a JAM PR guy.
'But one thing is clear: the latest pause in the running fight between al-Sadr and the U.S.-backed Iraqi government offers no visible solutions to the problems at the root of the conflict.'
... Which of course is blood for oil. Or was it hegemony? Or to get rid of weapons of mass destruction? Or to distract people from not catching Bin Laden? Or because Bush Jr wants to be like Bush Sr? Geez louise, I can't remember now what those 'root of the conflict problems' are... I must stop smoking so much pot.

Time is a mainstream publication, an old publication with a reputation. Its not some Islamist website set up by some snotty-nosed 16 year old wannabee jihadist. So how did this piece get in it? This isn't 'advocacy' journalism. It is blatant propaganda. Ok, its bad propaganda because good propaganda doesn't depend so perilously on hostages to fortune. But it is propaganda. Time should be ashamed.