Military Analysts In Thrall To The Pentagon

So sayeth the NY Times.

Chad sayeth if some of your reporters had some military experience you wouldn't need to hire so many analysts you retards.

Chad also sayeth that if some retired enlisted were sprinkled into the mix of analysts you did hire the picture you get would be much different than when you talk to retired Generals.

OK, seriously now here is the major NY Times claim:

Hidden behind that appearance of objectivity, though, is a Pentagon information apparatus that has used those analysts in a campaign to generate favorable news coverage of the administration’s wartime performance, an examination by The New York Times has found.

The effort, which began with the buildup to the Iraq war and continues to this day, has sought to exploit ideological and military allegiances, and also a powerful financial dynamic: Most of the analysts have ties to military contractors vested in the very war policies they are asked to assess on air.

In other words the analysts are lying in order to profit from the war.

In two places the NY Times links to some source documents (here and here) but when you read the documents they all talk about a program to quickly and credibly disseminate messages and provide proper context to ongoing events. Is that wrong? Also if they have over 8000 pages of documents as claimed then why not present the most damaging information in their interactive web presentation? If what they show is it they are a long ways from what they claim.

As I re-read the article what it really comes down too is the author is upset that the majority of military analysts share a common viewpoint with the military. Makes sense right? They spent the majority of their adult lives in that culture and they share it's values. The same thing is on view in David Barstow's righting here when he refers to the "Neoconservative braintrust" in a snide context or when he calls Ambassador Bremer "America's Viceroy" implying imperial ambitions. Concepts that I am sure are discussed quite often in the world where Barstow runs.

Read the transcript of the lunch or whatever with the analysts and the Secretary of Defense. Do they share a viewpoint? Undoubtedly, but that is why the analysts were hired because they understand that viewpoint.