AP Issues Standards Memo: 'Combat In Iraq Is Not Over'

At some point in the last two weeks, you may have been told by someone in the news that combat operations in Iraq were over, and that the last combat troop had left the country. Well, the Associated Press is not having any of it, and in a memo from their standards editor, Tom Kent, the law in this regard has been laid down, in no uncertain terms: "To begin with, combat in Iraq is not over, and we should not uncritically repeat suggestions that it is, even if they come from senior officials."

If you recall, on August 18, 2010, NBC broadcast their world news exclusive report that the War in Iraq was over, and that the "last U.S. combat troops have pulled out of Iraq." The story got wall-to-wall coverage on MSNBC, Rachel Maddow reported from the Green Zone, and correspondent Richard Engel got to take a ride on a tank. And all of this exclusive coverage was possible because the Pentagon giftwrapped the story for them. Here's Brian Stelter of the New York Times:

Asked how the NBC broadcast constituted "an official Pentagon announcement," Steve Capus, the president of NBC News, said the broadcast was such a declaration because "the announcement that the last Stryker brigade was leaving Iraq had not been made" by the military.

David Verdi, an NBC News vice president, added, "The military had said, 'You are the ones who are going to broadcast it first.'"

And, lo, it came to pass that the "last Stryker brigade" containing the "last U.S. combat troops" left Iraq, war over, the end. Except that right from the get go, this wasn't true. Let's go back to Stelter:

Still, a White House spokesman reiterated Wednesday night that the combat mission in Iraq formally ends on Aug. 31. At that time, Operation Iraqi Freedom becomes Operation New Dawn, with troops serving as trainers for the Iraqi military, much as they have for several months already. More than 50,000 troops will remain in Iraq; they will be reclassified as trainers.
But this goes a little bit beyond distinguishing between "Combat Operations End Day (Observed)" and "Combat Operations End Day (Actual)." The truth is, "combat" is still going on in Iraq, and 50,000 American troops remain behind.

Over at Salon, Glenn Greenwald has the definitive critical look at what NBC reported -- and subsequently covered themselves in glory over having done so -- and what is actually reality in Iraq. As he notes, that reality momentarily broke through during MSNBC's coverage.

One of the few sour notes in this coverage came when Olbermann briefly interviewed McClatchy's Jonathan Landay, and asked him what the 50,000 remaining soldiers would be doing. Landay explained:
This is the great irony for me, Keith. The fact is that under the delusional plans that former Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld had approved for the invasion of Iraq, they had intended to come down to 50,000 troops within three or four months of that invasion. . . . .That, for me, is the ultimate irony, is the fact that more than seven years later, we've now gotten down to the 50,000 troops that they thought they could get down to within three months of the invasion. . . . . [T]hose 50,000 men and women include special forces who will be going out on counter-terrorism missions with Iraqi forces. That, to me, is combat. They're armed. They're going into combat. There will be American, quote/unquote, advisers going out with Iraqi forces on regular patrols. That to me opens the door to combat.

So I don't think we're going to see the end of -- we are not going to see the end of combat for American forces I don't think in Iraq.