In her continuing — and basically successful — bid to make all other commentary obsolete, Hilzoy posts “thirteen ways to not look at the Petraeus Report.” Meanwhile, The Washington Post takes their own look at the surge and concludes that “recent improvements are sometimes tenuous, temporary, even illusory.” And Ilan Goldberg wonders why the military’s death figures don’t count Shi’a-on-Shi’a fighting, Sunni-on-Sunni violence, or car bombings. “I have an idea,” he says. “Why don’t we count murder rates in the U.S. but exclude all gun violence.” And then our police commissioner can go testify before the City Council as to his extraordinary success reducing violence!
Ezra Klein is a former Prospect writer and current editor-in-chief at Vox. His work has appeared in the LA Times, The Guardian, The Washington Monthly, The New Republic, Slate, and The Columbia Journalism Review. He’s been a commentator on MSNBC, CNN, NPR, and more. More by Ezra Klein