RemembranceThere's not much one can add in the tributes to those killed by Muslim terrorists three years ago, except to plead that a weak Democrat President and media not be allowed to take a stranglehold on the nation. It would not be in the nation's best interest.
We've seen what happens when such a Party and such a press decide that winning is all, and the facts and their social responsibility be damned. One the one hand, that creates a vacuum. People still want the news. They don't have time to research themselves, or even filter themselves. For those served by leftist broadcasting, as it were, they are satisfied. For the other 65%+ of the nation, they turn increasingly to what is now termed - new media, consisting principally of talk radio, FOX sometimes, cable news some of the time, conservative print journals and websites, assorted other independent but moderate to right voices, and those with generally conservative, if not necessarily Republican, 'weblogs' (the somewhat freakishly labelled the 'blogosphere').
In the wake of 9/11, it was said the leftwing 'mainstream' criticized the President from the start, wondering why key officials were airborne at one point, or why the President was not immediately seen at Ground Zero, as was Rudy, then mayor of the city. The so-called togetherness and 'bipartisanship' both sides sometimes claim existed in those times was something few others saw. The press never relented. The Democrat constantly looked for a political 'wedge issue'.
In the interests of losing the peace, they began full bore following the conclusion of full-scale military operations in Iraq, claiming among other things there were never any WMD, there was never any terrorist haven, and Saddam wanted to keep pretty much to himself, etc. Until the last month or so, they appeared to spend most of their time trying to prove that, and whatever else might seem politically damaging to a US President in wartime. That Mission Accomplished banner on the carrier struck a nerve with them. The leftist armchair generals on PBS or various alphab nets practically demanded that US forces force themselves into a 'quagmire'. And when that didn't happen they demanded a 'quagmire' in pursuing stabilization of Iraq. Those people jumping for joy were dismissed when cameramen found others who would glare in anger. And looting became the story, as countless treasures were said to be stolen or destroyed in local museums (which didn't turn out to be the case).
Without preferring the pollyanish, nevertheless, the 'news' was relentlessly unfair, negative, and along the lines of what one might have seen on Al Jazeera itself. People returning from Iraq, at various times, said they didn't recognize the place based on all the reports of violence and unrest they had seen portrayed by old media. Resistance in Tikrit meant the US was 'losing' the war. Resistance elsewhere early in 2004 meant the same, and continues to mean the same, they insist, even after an interim government has been established, months ago. The prison scandal at Abu Graib was meant to chase 'higher-ups' out of office, in a political mission joined by the press reminiscent of what we know now of the anti-war effort insultingly named after a Revolutionary era quote - namely, the Winter Soldier 'investigation', as such. There was no point to that unless the 'higher ups' could be made to pay. But there were no higher ups, here. Taguba, briefly a media star, quickly fell into oblivion when he clearly said there was no such connection, that these were simply miscreants, acting on their own. Nothing to date has suggested he was wrong.
So in the wake of 'new realities', the old media and a dying political Party can't seem to break away from the old playbook. With a real concern for defeating terrorism, in a very war on terror, the press and the Party seeks to fabricate calumnies against a US President in time of war, everything from phony CBS memos, to false witnesses, to lies and distortions, to self-serving hypocrisy in dealing with 'soft money' once a particular Swift Boat Veterans for Truth 527 proved effective, and so on down the line. Given the 'new realities', the old guard seem positively unpatriotic and unAmerican, preferring to aid and comfort our enemies in time of war.
That's an old reality which describes the left in this country. And it's worth remembering on this anniversary.
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