This is cross-posted from Religion of Peace?
World War II. The 'last good war', fought by 'the Greatest Generation.'
If we had the current press corps back then, you wouldn't know these phrases. World War II would live in infamy, remembered as a casually brutal, racist and hypocritical conflict in which the Americans were as bad as the Nazis we fought.
The fact is, the Iraq War has been held to a standard that NO war in history could ever meet. It's a sucker's deal. The liberals and media set the bar from the beginning so high that our troops were destined to 'fail' at the bar of enlightened opinion.
In this war, soldiers are arrested for assaulting captured enemies. In WWII, according to one military historian (John Keegan, I believe), as much as 10 percent of surrendering enemies were killed.
In this war, the media and the Left are hysterical that some white phosphorous might have been used during a fight. In WWII, we firebombed Tokyo. Think on that a moment. We firebombed civilians living in paper houses. Over 100,000 people died, more than died from the atomic bombs.
In this war, we not only try to minimize civilian casualties, but during the invasion we actually consciously minimized enemy military casualties as well. Has that happened before in history? In comparison, in WWII we carpet-bombed much of Europe.
In this war, we're so religiously and racially sensitive that the military launches investigations into Koran-abuse. In contrast, military historians say that the Pacific Theater in WWII had a heavily racist component. While in WWII they interred Japanese-Americans, we won't even search Arabs at the airport on more than a random basis.
None of this is said to enoble some of the bad things which have been done during the Iraq War -- prison abuse, military obfuscation, etc. It is said to provide perspective, however.
More importantly, none of this is said to denigrate the service or accomplishments of the men who served in WWII. NOTHING EVER COULD. And that's the point. These incidents cannot detract from the honor due the overall war effort. These men saved millions of lives, rescued nations from a vicious dictator, and restored human rights to countless people.
Hey, that sounds a lot like our troops in Iraq.
Posted by Discoshaman at novembre 17, 2005 12:37 AM | TrackBack
FRENCH CHURCHES BURN AND THE LEFT AND THE MSM IGNORE IT
One dozen Christian churches were defiled, ransacked and/or torched by rioters in France during the intifada.
http://translate.google.com/translate?hl=en&sl=fr&u=http://alexcorvus.blogspot.com/&prev=/search%3Fq%3Dalex%2Bcorvus%26hl%3Den%26lr%3D%26c2coff%3D1%26sa%3DG
(HAT TIP: NO PASARAN.)
That's one every other day over the last two weeks. Quite a clip. And during the same period, not a single mosque was torched by the rioters, (whose Muslim-ness has nothing to do with the riots - according to the MSM. And nothing about these targeted attacks against churches has appeared in the MSM, either).
In the old days, when the KKK - (who were like today's islamofascists: a group committed to tyranny and willing to use terror to impose it) - were torching BLACK churches, liberals did not hesitate to join the fight against the KKK. WHY DO THEY STAND AT THE SIDELINES NOW!? WORSE: why do actively work to make it tougher to defeat today's "GLOBAL KKK" the jihadoterrorists!? Sheesh.
ANSWER: Today's Lefties are like yesteryear's reactionaries. Yesteryear's liberals are today's neo-cons. IOW: FDR and JFK would be neo-cons today. And the And the brave volunteers joing the US military to fight islamofascisim in Iraq today, are like the Freedom-riders of the 1960's.
Reliapundit!
Good to see you, man. I'll post this up over at Religion of Peace?. Pop over there if you get time. . . :)
Posted by: Discoshaman at novembre 17, 2005 09:47 PMOh man...so much to say on this one. Let's start from this: If the U.S. military said right from the beginning that no journalists were welcome in Iraq, they're all their at their own risk, no embedding, no nothing - then ok. If they limited dispatches to censored cables and newsreels, like things were limited back then - ok. (Actually more than ok, I'm seriously beginning to think that might be the best solution.) But if the U.S. military wants to invite modern journalists, with modern means of communication, into Iraq, then this - good and bad - is what you're gonna get, isn't it?
But hey, there's another part of me that says: If none of this is meant to ennoble assaulting captured enemies, attacking civilians, racism, torture, or military obfuscation, then - what exactly is your point? Isn't it the media's job to point out these things? And - take a minute to answer this - wouldn't it have been better (in every sense of the word) if the media HAD pointed out these things in World War II? Wouldn't our victory have been even more honorable?
And the more reasoned part of me says: You know me. I'm a guy who can distinguish between white phosphorous rounds on enemy positions and forcing prisoners to masturbate each other for the cameras. I know you can too. Here's the real-world question: does the media hysteria about white phosphorous outweigh the good the media did in bringing Abu Ghraib to light?
Don't know myself. Gotta sleep on it.
Posted by: The Liberal Media at novembre 18, 2005 05:06 PMReliapundit: Riiiiiiight, screw the MSM, let's all get our news from vaguely racist French bloggers who apparently take Laibach seriously. Who needs the MSM, we can get Google to translate it for us! Great idea, I'm selling my Reuters shares first thing Monday morning.
Oh wait - Reuters DID report the church burnings. Nevermind.
Posted by: The Liberal Media at novembre 18, 2005 05:43 PM