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Over the next week, much will be written, pro and con, about General Petraeus’s report on the progress of the “surge” in Iraq and President Bush’s response. Since both men have pretty much already announced, or at least rehearsed, what they are going to say, the suspense is not exactly crippling. I’ll be writing more later, but for now I’d simply like to address the media’s responsibility to address, over the next few days, this key moment in our recent history with a steady gaze – which, as I will recount, was sadly lacking last winter in the weeks before the “surge” was announced.

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