The Iraqi
Blues
Is Losing A War A Good Thing?
By Daniel Muniz
One of the things I have never understood about the liberals in
Congress in particular and about lefties in the Democrat party in
general, is their fascination with losing the war in Iraq.
Democrats, with a few notable exceptions, seem to delight each time
there is bad news about Iraq. And since bad news is what really
sells newspapers, the media really has a bottomless pit of news to
hawk, even if they have to exaggerate the stretched
truth.
But I suppose what bothers me the most is the
sensational aspect of reporting news in Iraqi. Most of what is being
reported is bad even though there are tremendous success stories
that don’t even see the light of day in the New York Times or other
big publications.
Yes, there are blunders. Yes, there are mistakes.
And yes, the Bush administration has not made the best decisions
regarding the Middle East. However, the war itself is not about the
Administration or about Republicans even though the media depicts it
as such.
But therein lies the rub. Anything that is bad in Iraq can be
leveled against the Bush administration. Instead of comprehensively
reporting the news, the press has simply put a gigantic bull’s eye
on George W. Bush; thus, anything negative can be targeted on our
president.
That is wrong.
And it is wrong for any party to do it.
There are some Republicans who share some
blame for chastising Clinton’s intervention in Haiti and Kosovo. And
for myself, I wasn’t exactly thrilled about those operations but the
moment our troops became involved, I was all for the winning the
conflict regardless of who was the president. Our troops belong to
America, not to any president. And those Republicans who took cheap
shots during those conflicts are just as wrong as certain left-wing
Democrats are today.
And while civilian leadership over our
military is part of our constitution, the war in Iraq is actually
being run by the armed forces. Unlike the micro management of Lyndon
Johnson during Vietnam, the Iraqi war is being orchestrated directly
by our military. That oversight has tempered and limited some of the
harsh criticism from many Democratic politicians but it hasn’t
stopped the left-wing organizations from blasting the war.
Since the Reagan defense build up, our
military has become one of the most professional and dedicated
forces in the entire world. With an enormous amount of expertise and
technology, our armed forces have performed Herculean tasks under
some of the most uninviting conditions in Afghanistan and in Iraq.
Yet, the media still treats their accomplishments as pariahs.
There is no doubt that Iraq has enormous
obstacles in its infrastructure from the environment, to the
economy, and to its social order. And the press has had no problem
in sensationalizing those problems. Yet, they go to great pains to
gloss over the undoubtedly significant achievements.
Today, Iraq has more female representation in
its government than our own Congress has, yet you are not going to
find stories like that in the media unless it is a woman being
assassinated.
Or how about the restoration of the Arab
wetlands that Saddam Hussein drained. Environmentalists go out of
their way to ignore the incredible environmental abuse that Saddam
inflicted upon Iraq and they definitely don't want to talk about the
huge effort underway right now to restore that eco-system.
The list can go on for hours but the point is
that our media doesn’t care; unless is about someone getting shot or
beheaded.
Below is an interesting observation about what news really is:
“And I am sure that I
never read any memorable news in a newspaper. If we read of one man
robbed, or murdered, or killed by accident, or one house burned, or
one vessel wrecked
…we never need read of
another. One is enough. If you are acquainted with the principle,
what do you care for a myriad instances and applications? To a
philosopher all news, as it is called, is gossip”
Walden – Henry David Thoreau
Even back in his day, Henry David Thoreau was
not much into the news. To him, most of it was gossip. And most of
the sensationalism in our news sells newspapers or draws a TV
audience but does little to inform the reader of the comprehensive
nature of Iraq.
But why is there not any compassion or
solidarity for Iraq?
A democratic stable Iraq is good for the
Middle East as well as for the rest of the world.
There is nothing wrong with criticizing our
government and even our military when they do make mistakes such as
Abu Ghraib. But there is something definitely wrong with ignoring
how our military is helping establish a central popularly elected
government.
We want your opinion! Tell us what you thought about
this article. Click the
Your Feedback menu item to send us
your comments.
