On the Neccesity of the Iraq War
Michael responds to a previous post which reflects his bias:
And of course the media was going to play up the negative aspects of the war, seeing as how the whole thing was unnecessary to begin with.
You were one of those people that didn’t believe Saddam Hussein had weapons of mass destruction despite his intentional efforts to fool the Iranians into thinking he did. President Bush clearly did not see it that way. Given the intelligence at the time, he felt action was necessary. It easy to say Saddam didn’t have weapons of mass destruction when its not your job to make sure none of those non extant weapons find there way into the country and kills thousands of people. When faced with the responsibility of protecting the citizenry there is a really good chance what you view as necessary and unnecessary will change.
You were not alone in thinking the war was unnecessary. Within journalism there is a large concentration of people that agree with you that the war was unnecessary. This belief clearly had an effect on coverage turning off large groups of people that didn’t believe the war was unnecessary.
The NYtimes serves as a fine example of showing how the staff’s bias led to coverage focused on the negative aspects of the war. This news organization put on the front page of its newspapers the Abu Ghraib story for forty four days in a row. Forty Four days it was on the front page. Recently the newspaper did a huge piece erroneously ‘reporting’ that vets coming back from Iraq and Afghanistan were more likely to kill. The people that made decision about this being ‘news’ agree with you that the war was unnecessary.
This fucking paper, to my knowledge, has never had a single fucking story about any, just any, of the heroics any of our soldiers have displayed while fighting brutal terrorist that enjoy sawing people’s head off. Even when the war was at it’s ugliest, none of the MSM took any time to show the valor or bravery of our soldiers. Astoundingly returning soldiers complained about the disconnect between the press’s war in Iraq and the war in Iraq they were fighting.
I have read about the selfless act of our soldiers in Iraq. Not from CNN, which published our enemies propaganda sniping OUR OWN FUCKING soldiers. Not from NYtimes, which ‘broke’ the story of the secret intelligence program which had extensive legislative and judicial oversight. No its not the MSM were I go to get actual information on the war in Iraq. If I wanted to hear the stories that come from people that see the war as necessary I read pro war bloggers that actually bothered, to you know, go to Iraq. It was here where I read about the heroics of our soldiers. It was here were I read about the sacrifice Iraq has made to transform a despot into a democracy.
By the way, these pro war bloggers were significantly more objective than any piece of shit report I ever read on CNN or NYtimes. It turns out when you see something as necessary you are more likely to give sobering accounts of it. The pro war bloggers were ahead of the MSM curve in reporting on how the aspects of the war were being mismanaged. I read first from them that country was heading into sectarian war months before the MSM go their slimy hands on that development. Those that believed the war was necessary reported both good and bad news and in the process gave a much more objective picture of the war.
I have know for years that the press leans left which leads to skewed reporting. For the most part I have accepted this problem. However, when it came to this war it’s biased coverage made me irate. This was because it was stated policy of our enemies to kill as many civilians as possible to get the top story coverage which, it was hoped, would then result in political pressure to pull out of the war.
It was the explicit strategy of Al Qaeda to use our news organization against us to generate the pressure needed to get us to retreat from Iraq.
Knowing this how did CNN, NYtimes and the rest of the MSM respond? By only covering and giving top headlines to the death and destruction Al Qaeda was creating in the country. Indirectly the MSM was complicit in assisting our enemies in succeeding in Iraq. And you know what, it almost worked. The MSM and Al Qaeda almost beat the US Military in Iraq. Fortunately we had a leader wise enough to see what was going on between the press coverage and our enemies and he stood steadfast against the intense political demands for retreat. Since he saw the war as necessary he was willing to make changes when he saw that was needed irrespective of Al Qaeda and the MSM attempts to force his hand.
Many citizen became wise to MSM complicity with our enemies. As a consequence we see many people indicating there unhappiness with the way the press covered the war. This seems obvious, when your coverage harms your own military and helps your enemies then readers are going to turn away from you as a credible new source.
Like you Michael, the MSM saw the war as unnecessary, and this lead to an alliance between Al Qaeda and our press. Ironically, Al Qaeda most certainly saw the war as necessary and fortunately, for the sake of our country, so did George Bush and the countless citizens who saw the war as necessary.
January 29th, 2008 at 3:42 pm
You call your post “On the necessity of the Iraqi War” when you stop talking about the necessity 2 paragraphs in, then proceed to rant about how the MSM has reported more bad news than good, and how that plays into Al Qaeda’s master plan. But honestly, how could our media have played into this plan if the government and military hadn’t led the way? If we weren’t in Iraq, there would be no stories of bombings in Baghdad, or insurgency attacks.
You display your own bias here sir. Instead of criticizing those who mistakenly led us into this mess of a war, you attack the messenger. Before we even finished the job in Afghanistan, we diverted resources and attention to Iraq, a country that, while led by a ruthless dictator, was relatively terrorist free. But after we destroyed the social order of the entire country, insurgent Al Qaeda members rushed in while many Iraqis lashed out. Iraq, once free of Islamic terrorism, is now swarming with it. Intelligence reports say there are more terrorists now than when we began our War on Terror. And you want to criticize the media for reporting when people get blown up? Or tortured?
Now maybe the media has under-reported some of the more positive aspects of the war. But the news market has spoken—people want bad news about the war. 67% of people disapprove of Bush’s handling of the war. 56% feel the Iraq war was a mistake.
“Even when the war was at it’s ugliest, none of the MSM took any time to show the valor or bravery of our soldiers.”
The NewsHour with Jim Lehrer has a regular segment that displays our fallen soldiers’ picture, name, rank, and hometown in complete silence. Lehrer, a former Marine, understands honoring our soldiers.
January 29th, 2008 at 4:22 pm
good to vent every now and then. I’d also give the electorate credit on staying the course. After all, we managed to avoid Kerry.
January 29th, 2008 at 9:34 pm
Just got done watching a touching piece about how a fallen soldier’s wish of soccer balls for the kids of Iraq has been delivered. What an outstanding show of support for our soldiers and the community that supports their efforts. I saw this piece on ESPN. ESPN is owned by the disney company along with ABC. That smacks me as MSM…. I guess the whole summary judgment of MSM being anti-war would have hard time with such a piece. I enjoyed it, and I’m still against the occupation of Iraq. Turns out you can be pro-solider and anti-war. Who would have known?