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« Think Progress on the Fallon piece | Main | Ricks' attempted 'takedown' of Esquire piece »
6:18AM

The key quote in the Adm. Fallon piece

Comes at the bottom of the first section regarding Iran:

And if it comes to war?

"Get serious," the admiral says. "These guys are ants. When the time comes, you crush them.'"

Ask yourself what I'm peddling with that quote.

The article is about 7,000 words long. Ask anybody who does profiles. I've had a bunch done on me over the years. You never get more than a couple two-three hundred words to explain yourself. Most times it's a whopping 50 or so.

Adm. Fallon is quoted a stunning amount--almost 1,300 words. That's bigger than the vast majority of newspaper articles and virtually all op-eds.

The piece speaks for itself, as does the Admiral.

This is the first piece that gives Fallon more than the usual 50 words to explain himself, and it provided magnificent context to judge his strategic thinking . . . at least for those readers--and especially commentators--who can manage their way past the first dozen paragraphs.

For those who can't read that far, they're free to peddle what they must ...

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