During a report on the “military realities” of the Iraq Survey Group's (ISG) final report, the December 7 broadcast of NBC's Nightly News featured Sen. John McCain's (R-AZ) criticism of the ISG's suggestion that “all combat brigades not necessary for force protection could be out of Iraq” by early 2008 as “a recipe that will lead to, sooner or later, our defeat in Iraq.” However, in citing McCain's remarks on whether the ISG's military suggestions for Iraq are “realistic,” NBC ignored the fact that McCain's own military proposal for Iraq is likely unfeasible and that top military commanders have questioned its utility.

From the December 7 broadcast of NBC's Nightly News:

BRIAN WILLIAMS (anchor): And now to the military realities. The Iraq Study Group's report said the focus of U.S. troops in Iraq should shift now from combat to training, and that all combat brigades not necessary for force protection specifically could be withdrawn by early 2008. But is that realistic? We have perspectives from two different fronts tonight beginning from the home headquarters, the Pentagon, and NBC News correspondent Jim Miklaszewski.

MIKLASZEWSKI: In the sharpest criticism yet, Republican Senator John McCain told Jim Baker and Lee Hamilton their report for Iraq reminds him of the last war the U.S. lost: Vietnam.

McCAIN: And I believe that this is a recipe that will lead to, sooner or later, our defeat in Iraq.

MIKLASZEWSKI: One of McCain's biggest concerns: the recommendation that most U.S. combat forces be withdrawn from Iraq while the number of American military advisers embedded with Iraqi forces be increased. That could put those U.S. advisers at great risk.

As Media Matters for America has noted, McCain, who has called for thousands more U.S. troops to be sent to Iraq, has himself asserted that the fate of the U.S. effort in Iraq will be decided in a matter of months, and yet he has acknowledged that sending 20,000 more soldiers into the region would require increasing active forces by 100,000. Moreover, Gen. John Abizaid, the commander of U.S. forces in the Middle East, testified before the Senate Armed Services Committee on November 15 and stated that his commanders did not believe a troop increase would significantly improve the situation in Iraq: “I've met with every divisional commander. General [George] Casey, the corps commander, [Lt.] General [Martin] Dempsey -- we all talked together. And I said, 'In your professional opinion, if we were to bring in more American troops now, does it add considerably to our ability to achieve success in Iraq?' And they all said no. And the reason is because we want the Iraqis to do more.”