by Victor Davis Hanson<\/p>\n
Tribune Media Services<\/p>\n
T<\/span>hree recent books about the “fiasco” in Iraq \u2014\u00a0Cobra II<\/i>\u00a0by Michael Gordon and Bernard Trainor,\u00a0State of Denial<\/i>\u00a0by Bob Woodward and just plainFiasco<\/i>\u00a0by Tom Ricks \u2014 have attracted a lot of attention, and sales. All three well-written expos\u00e9s repeat the now well-known argument that our government’s incompetence and arrogance have nearly ensured America’s failure in birthing democracy in Iraq.<\/p>\n It’s worth noting, though, that many of the authors’ critical portraits rely on private conversations and anonymous sources. The most damning informants in these books are never identified and so can’t be questioned.<\/p>\n The authors, as journalists, are well aware that after The New York Times’ problems with Jayson Blair and other high-profile media scandals, the public no longer necessarily accepts what reporters write as gospel. That perhaps explains their and others’ apparent adaptation of scholarly methods. Often these days, journalists mimic the footnoting of historians \u2014 giving the impression that their reporting is history documented by verifiable primary and secondary sources also available to the reader.<\/p>\n Indeed, the verifiability of source material is what\u00a0distinguishes history from hearsay \u2014and what distinguishes the genre from journalism or first-person recollections. Since the time of the\u00a0historian Thucydides \u2014 who not only recorded what speakers said, but, more controversially, made them voice what he thought they might or ought to have said \u2014 historians have developed protocols to ensure credibility. Whether or not historians use footnotes or citations, they at least now agree to draw on information that can be checked by others, who will determine how skillfully, honestly or completely such sources were employed.<\/p>\n But by too often using only the veneer of the historical method, the authors of these three books give their work a patina of scholarly credibility that can confuse the reader. In\u00a0Cobra II<\/i>, for example, some citations at the end of the book state that information came from a “former senior military officer,” “former Centcom planner” or “U.S. State Department official.”<\/p>\n In\u00a0Fiasco<\/i>, often verbatim quotations are not cited with specific attribution, but only vaguely noted in the text as “said a Bush administration official” or “recalled one officer.”\u00a0Among the endnotes in\u00a0State of Denial<\/i>, we are apprised, “The information in this chapter comes primarily from background interviews with seven knowledgeable sources.”<\/p>\n But who are these “seven knowledgeable” sources? Since Woodward so far won’t name them, how do we really\u00a0know that they are “knowledgeable” or even “primarily” used? Is the answer because they talked to Woodward (and not to others?), or were pre-selected because they happened to agree with his own views?<\/p>\n In\u00a0Cobra II<\/i>, we wonder why one “former Centcom planner” would talk while others (more numerous?) choose not to. And in\u00a0Fiasco<\/i>, is the talkative but unnamed “Bush administration official” getting even at his rivals by offering only his interpretation of shared past conversations?<\/p>\n T<\/span>here are a number of other things wrong with all this gossip.<\/p>\n First, note the disturbing pattern in this resorting to anonymity. Usually the unidentified source supports the author’s critique \u2014 and thus is almost always critical of the present policy in Iraq. Rarely do these journalists quote unnamed sources who dissent from their own views, although there are surely pro-U.S. Iraq policy candid voices among the thousands of retired generals.<\/p>\n Second, here is the cardinal rule for anonymous sources in this new genre of pseudo-history: Talk to reporters as soon as possible “off the record” in hopes that they will be sympathetic. If you keep quiet, some of your loudmouth enemies might unload on you from the safety of anonymity, ensuring their narrative, not yours, will become authoritative.<\/p>\n Third, we are not reading accounts of golf or fashion but the most important event since the end of the Cold War as it unfolds. When\u00a0one writes military history in the middle of a war, there is a responsibility to be extra careful. Real-time interpretations don’t just offer lessons about the past but may change the very course of events as they happen.<\/p>\n These past couple of weeks, current and former officials have been protesting that they were unfairly characterized in Woodward’s book \u2014 and have argued that conditions in Iraq are not as bad as alleged by anonymous sources.\u00a0And while there have been\u00a0on-the-record critics of all three books,\u00a0none of the unnamed accusers\u00a0cited in them\u00a0has come forward.<\/p>\n These virtual histories all allege a “state of denial” and lack of accountability on the part of government officials. Perhaps \u2014 but how odd then that the authors of\u00a0Cobra II<\/i>,\u00a0Fiasco<\/i>\u00a0and\u00a0State of Denial<\/i>\u00a0have used the very secrecy and subterfuge they claim to deplore in their targets.<\/p>\n \u00a92006 Tribune Media Services<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" by Victor Davis Hanson Tribune Media Services Three recent books about the “fiasco” in Iraq \u2014\u00a0Cobra II\u00a0by Michael Gordon and Bernard Trainor,\u00a0State of Denial\u00a0by Bob Woodward and just plainFiasco\u00a0by Tom Ricks \u2014 have attracted a lot of attention, and sales. All three well-written expos\u00e9s repeat the now well-known argument that our government’s incompetence and arrogance […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false,"jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false}}},"categories":[766],"tags":[],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p466Sb-YW","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":3291,"url":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/no-we-cant\/","url_meta":{"origin":3778,"position":0},"title":"No We Can’t","author":"victorhanson","date":"September 17, 2008","format":false,"excerpt":"The Democratic left wing has been determined to lose America's wars. by Bruce S. Thornton City Journal Review of\u00a0Party of Defeat: How Democrats and Radicals Undermined America\u2019s War on Terror Before and After 9-11, by David Horowitz and Ben Johnson (Spence, 224 pp.) From the days of ancient Athens, the\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Reviews"","block_context":{"text":"Reviews","link":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/ahref=\/index.php\/categories\/angry-reader\/categorylink\/a\/opinion\/reviews\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":3990,"url":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/too-few-troops\/","url_meta":{"origin":3778,"position":1},"title":"Too Few Troops?","author":"victorhanson","date":"May 17, 2006","format":false,"excerpt":"by Victor Davis Hanson The American Enterprise Online When Saddam\u2019s statue fell in April 2003, 70 percent of the American people, along with both Houses of Congress that authorized the war, were quite happy with President Bush\u2019s decision to depose the Baathist regime. Three years and a messy reconstruction later,\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "May 2006"","block_context":{"text":"May 2006","link":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/ahref=\/index.php\/categories\/angry-reader\/categorylink\/a\/archives\/2006\/may-2006\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":2066,"url":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/our-flip-flopping-wars\/","url_meta":{"origin":3778,"position":2},"title":"Our Flip-Flopping Wars","author":"victorhanson","date":"December 21, 2009","format":false,"excerpt":"by Victor Davis Hanson Tribune Media Services We don't hear all that much about Iraq these days, do we? The war at one point almost tore apart this country. Public anger sent George W. Bush's approval ratings plummeting. 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ABC's Charlie Gibson used to cover her anti-Bush rallies in Crawford, Texas.\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "September 2009"","block_context":{"text":"September 2009","link":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/ahref=\/index.php\/categories\/angry-reader\/categorylink\/a\/archives\/2009\/september-2009\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":3283,"url":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/iraq-round-three\/","url_meta":{"origin":3778,"position":4},"title":"Iraq, Round Three","author":"victorhanson","date":"October 7, 2008","format":false,"excerpt":"by Victor Davis Hanson Policy Review A review of\u00a0Moment of Truth in Iraq: How a New \u2018Greatest Generation\u2019 of American Soldiers is Turning Defeat and Disaster into Victory and Hope\u00a0by Michael Yon and\u00a0Tell Me How This Ends: General David Petraeus and the Search For a Way Out of Iraq\u00a0by Linda\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Reviews"","block_context":{"text":"Reviews","link":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/ahref=\/index.php\/categories\/angry-reader\/categorylink\/a\/opinion\/reviews\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":1348,"url":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/a-tale-of-two-surges\/","url_meta":{"origin":3778,"position":5},"title":"A Tale of Two Surges","author":"victorhanson","date":"December 6, 2011","format":false,"excerpt":"by Victor Davis Hanson Tribune Media Services From 2007 to 2009, a surge of 20,000 troops under the generalship of David Petraeus saved a mostly lost war in Iraq. Petraeus\u2019s counterinsurgency doctrine helped win over the population, as the surge in troops gave greater security to Iraq\u2019s government and military.\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Iraq"","block_context":{"text":"Iraq","link":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/ahref=\/index.php\/categories\/angry-reader\/categorylink\/a\/the-world\/the-middle-east\/iraq\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3778"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3778"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3778\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3872,"href":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3778\/revisions\/3872"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3778"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3778"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3778"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}