Paging Tom Ricks: Name Those Analysts

Powerline cites the blog Vital Perspective, which watched Howard Kurtz's Reliable Sources on CNN so we wouldn't have to. The blog notes some bizarre comments from the Post's Tom Ricks, who's promoting his new book on Iraq.

[Kurtz]: Tom Ricks, you've covered a number of military conflicts, including Iraq, as I just mentioned. Is civilian casualties increasingly going to be a major media issue? In conflicts where you don't have two standing armies shooting at each other?

THOMAS RICKS, REPORTER, "THE WASHINGTON POST": I think it will be. But I think civilian casualties are also part of the battlefield play for both sides here. One of the things that is going on, according to some military analysts, is that Israel purposely has left pockets of Hezbollah rockets in Lebanon, because as long as they're being rocketed, they can continue to have a sort of moral equivalency in their operations in Lebanon.

KURTZ: Hold on, you're suggesting that Israel has deliberately allowed Hezbollah to retain some of it's fire power, essentially for PR purposes, because having Israeli civilians killed helps them in the public relations war here?

RICKS: Yes, that's what military analysts have told me.

Who? Which military analysts are telling you that the Israeli military is allowing its citizens to die for PR purposes?

Oh, and to whom are you referring when you say there's some belief from our reporters that they [the IDF] have occasionally targeted the media? Are any of them Eason Jordan?

UPDATE: Well how positively stunning. Ricks says his military analyst sources are....anonymous. Hugh Hewitt  interviewed him:

TR- Yeah, I wish I'd kept my mouth shut. What I said was accurate, that in an off-the-record conversation with some military analysts, a couple had said to me that they thought it was a smart strategy to leave some rocket pockets in place to help the Israelis shape public perceptions, and give their forces more freedom of maneuver in Lebanon. They weren't saying it was a bad strategy. They thought it was pretty intelligent, if it were the case. But I've since heard today from some very smart, well-informed people, that while such a strategy might be logical, and even morally defensible, that they thought the Israeli public just wouldn't stand for it, and they also expressed personal dismay to me that I had passed on the thought, which they thought was irresponsible.

HH: Do you want to name any of the analysts?

TR: No, it was an off-the-record conversation, and I want to honor that confidence.

If it were the case? Am I missing something, or did Ricks dispense with the what-ifs in his Howard Kurtz interview?

In any case, yes, Ricks, go with your second impulse henceforth and keep your mouth shut. Good thinking, bad timing.

Comments

[Terrence]

I can hear the black helicopters, can you?

Strangely, his book is number one on the NY Times Bestseller list, but probably because it's the first week out and is has the words "Fiasco" and "American Military" in it. I predict it plummits down the list within two weeks.