Buying the Good News

I don't fully share the outrage about the fact that our military has been paying the Iraqi press to print good news stories. I'm more bothered by the fact that the Bushies were doing the same in the US. It does seem to have a little of the comic opera ineptitude about it that has characterized so much of the Bush war, though.

I was particularly impressed by the rationale somebody offered on NPR today.
It's the custom in that part of the world. Saddam did it.
Well, that's a precedent we wouldn't want to tamper with, huh?

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