The front page gets Stylish

The big year-end blowout piece on Iraq in today's New York Times predicts that if Bush decides to send in more American troops now, "historians may well ask why it took him so long." This may be true, but the phrasing is pretty reminiscent of the old "some say"/"experts say" trick you see in the kind of baseless trend pieces J. L. warned us about in August. Actually, "reminiscent" is probably the wrong word, since "historians may well ask" is not just a shot in the dark about some faceless individuals, but a shot in the dark about some faceless individuals who don't even exist yet.

On a related note, the article starts with a subliminal not unlike the "haters" thing in the Obama article:

President Bush began 2006 assuring the country that he had a “strategy for victory in Iraq.” He ended the year closeted with his war cabinet on his ranch trying to devise a new strategy, because the existing one had collapsed.