Posted by Jack
This is a comment received and it was so well done I thought you would not want to miss it so I put it out here one page one. Now the comment:
By Nick
TSQ, thank you for your response and now I would like to address a few points…
First of all, let me state that I do not feel any antipathy towards those who opposed the war on logical or rational grounds. Granted, I do not know you, but based off your comments you strike me as someone who dissented in what I like to call the “American” or “Dickinson” tradition.
(Mr. Dickinson of Penn. was a member of the congressional delegation which adopted the Declaration of Independence. He refused to vote for or sign the document, but when it carried; he was one of the only 2 members of that body to serve in a military capacity during the war.)
I would also add that Edmund Burke gave a very good argument for opposing war while troops were in the field.
So my frustration toward elements of the anti-war movement in the media, democrat party as well as general populace is not born out of a philosophy that war time dissension is not to be tolerated.
Rather it is founded upon my own eyewitness account of the intellectually dishonest methods used, the bias applied to supposedly “objective reporting”, and the complete and utter inconsistency of position.
I would have to disagree that most Democrats and any of the media supported the war initially and only changed their opinions later, although I do not think that such a defense in and of itself is a worthy one.
Their comments almost immediately following our invasion were tailored to cast doubt on our prospects while at the same time their vote to take us to war could not be used to challenge their resolve or apparent “hawkishness”. It was to be the methods and strategy that every step of the way seemed to come under attack. We have grown so accustomed to hearing about failures of the post war strategy that many in politics and punditry have fostered a false reality that it was only after hard evidence became available that victory was not achievable, or that our initial reasons for invading not realized, they began to oppose the war.
I remember watching and reading reports and speeches during this time which paint a different picture. It became very clear to me, almost immediately that many votes for this war were purely political in nature, and not made with a true intent to see the war through to a successful conclusion. Prominent Democrats were on a daily basis, putting themselves in a position whereby they suffered politically for every success, and profited from every failure.
As far as the media merely catching up with the facts on the ground, I simply do not feel this reflects what actually happened.
Was there really a justification for the Abu Graib story to make the front page of the NYT a few dozen times? While we were never treated to similar stories of American heroism or success? Did the actions at Abu Graib justify Sen. Kennedy’s comments that we had “reopened Saddam’s torture rooms, under US management”?
Not if you ask an Iraqi, even a Sunni Iraqi. I have yet to hear one Sunni Iraqi I have asked, reply that Abu Graib was a horrible atrocity.
More often than not the immediate response is: “that is nothing, nothing compared to what Saddam was doing, and it is not comparable”. Yet for months we were treated to speech after speech, report after report on how horrible, cruel and indecent this act was! The enemy was watching and the enemy knew exactly how to exploit this reporting to their favor. This is just one example, there are many more of how prominent democrats or our media or the media of the western world, rushing to judgment concerning our soldiers, and used every setback, or mistake to call for an end to the war etc.
I guess I do agree with the media not keeping up with “facts on the ground” in some respects, as I am constantly amazed by the number of people in our country who still are completely unaware that 550 metric tons of yellow cake uranium was discovered in Iraq back in 2003.
That should be the smoking gun as far as a WMD program is concerned, yet it gets buried on page 12, while any accusation against our soldiers, no matter how loosely based on reality carries the front page. Finally actions such as those by Sen. Reid, in declaring the war “lost”, was an outright act of betrayal. His sentiments are exactly the kind that insurgents thrive on, as I am sure you know. COIN is a type of warfare reliant on the information war, more than perhaps any other.
I’m sorry sir, but I simply cannot accept these facts as coincidences. They have all the appearance of design toward the object of immediate US withdrawal in the face of an enemy which puts suicide vests on children to make a political point. And if such measures or actions were delivered in an intellectually honest manner, with the intent being stated, I would not have had such a problem with the media especially, but the willful denial and absolute refusal to report or politic objectively during this war is beneath those who report to or represent us.
As for my comments directed toward “some on the left” or even the generalization of “Democrats”, I thank you for a chance to explain more thoroughly.
I am sure that my generalization of “Democrats” and subsequent exclusion of “Republicans” from my comments, serve to misrepresent some democrats, while protecting some republicans merely by virtue of association. Let me be clear and say that it is the actions of the individual I mean to take into account, but that by the same token, one cannot expect to be completely removed from the official stands of the party to which they belong. And Republicans have largely stood by us and our mission this entire time, while many prominent Democratic leaders have not only cast disparaging remarks about the mission, but have, without evidence, or the application of basic common sense, compared us to Saddam’s tortures, murders, terrorists, and even Nazi’s; and have done so with very little if ANY self regulation within their party.
Concerning the return of veterans.
I see no disrespectful behavior on your part by the admission of the feelings and thoughts you have concerning returning veterans wounded or otherwise. But the fact that your feelings are in my opinion appropriate, does not exclude that others seem determined on a course to emphasize certain conditions as if they were “rampant” or somehow specific or even exclusive to this war.
The emphasis I have seen placed by certain politicians on PTSD or violent behavior upon return, during this war is in my opinion absolutely ridiculous and disproportionate to actual instances. I have seen politicians discuss this matter as if every soldier serving in Iraq was living day to day with death and destruction. I can assure you, that this is a ridiculous notion which bears absolutely NO resemblance to reality.
I have also seen protesters and in fact the “Peace and Freedom center” in Chico use pictures of fallen soldiers to advance their anti-war agenda without even having the decency to contact families and seek permission before they use their sons memory to advance an agenda that statistically they would have overwhelmingly opposed.
My wife has been subjected to the out right condescension of those who see soldiers and military families as unwitting idiots caught up in a conflict they don’t understand. Or as Sen. Kerry put it, we were the ones who apparently didn’t apply ourselves and got “stuck” over here.
I have even seen it on these very pages where a poster has classified “professional or career” soldiers as being devoid of compassion. It took very little prodding to discover what they really meant was that they had no use for any soldier not capable of fitting the stereo type of the war torn victim. In a war I might add where the VAST MAJORITY of those serving may never see a single shot fired in anger, and where Cinnabon and Taco Bell are located right next to the PX, for many of them.
Again, I honestly believe that this war deserves very close scrutiny. And I am one who has supported the war from the beginning. But I want that scrutiny to be factually driven with an honest desire to improve US military tactics and strategy as well as a close look at the political strategy and its larger effects.
The bottom line thus far is that a violent and sadistic dictator has been over throw.
His government has been replaced with a parliamentary democracy.
550 metric tons of yellow cake uranium, a product which has no use beyond those of weapons manufacturing, has been denied said dictator or which ever terrorist element he might have sold them too.
All of this was achieved in 5 years with no draft and fewer American deaths than we experienced in single battles in previous wars.
I think it is time that we start acknowledging the success as well as the blunders in this war. Equal time does not mean we find a bad story to go with every good one, it merely means we dedicate the appropriate amount of time and emphasis according to the actual events taking place in proportion to their frequency and importance.
Thanks again TSQ for your comments and insight.