dueler88
Retired Lt. General Ricardo Sanchez recently gave a press conference, the full text of which can be read here. (HT: Belmont Club)
When I first heard about the conference on the radio news, the narrative was stated in such a way that Gen. Sanchez was yet another in a long line of military brass that simply don't like Bush or his policies. If the media chose to report factually, rather than to support a political agenda, they might learn something. In this case, they might learn that both the Federal Government AND the MSM are quite simply really screwed up. News flash: when I say "Federal Government," I mean ALL policy members - not just the Executive Branch - are doing a piss-poor job at supporting the U.S. military in its efforts in Iraq.
The General's comments are spot-on. Would that there were more history majors that became journalists - then there might be some understanding of the power that information plays in warfare.
The U.S. Military is doing the best they can within the circumstances. The main difficulty of the circumstances is that the military must be as forthcoming as possible so as not to be presumed as hiding bad news, while simultaneously being subjected to a nitpicking news media that presumes the military is always dishonest - being an arm of the EE-VILLE Bush regime, of course.
The General is also correct in that the Bush administration has done an extremely poor job of communicating the importance of the Iraq campaign within the wider war against Islamic Militants. Although I do have to say that it's extremely difficult to get one's point across when those who distill and summarize one's message already have a preconceived idea of one's motivation. Not only that, but those messengers seem to posses a world-view in which any and every idea about human self-government is just as good as any other.
Okay, so I can sorta see the point of the MSM; that they should report news without showing any bias to a particular world-view. But what the MSM fails to recognize is that the world-views outside of their own situation leave much to be desired in regards to individual liberty, i.e. freedom of the press.
The biggest point the General makes, without explicitly making it, is that the officers (non-com's, too) in the U.S. military are light-years ahead of the MSM in understanding the lessons of history, the meaning and importance of individual liberty, and the role that information and intelligence play in both wartime and peacetime. He slapped the MSM upside the head, metaphorically speaking, and the MSM still didn't hear what he said. I don't suspect that the MSM will get the message until the lovely new NYT building is destroyed by Islamic militants (note to Lefty pundits that wish to presume otherwise about conservatives: I do NOT condone or support any such attack). But Islamic militants are much smarter than the MSM - they understand the value of information as much as the U.S. military does.
I fear a horribly fractured and violent time must be weathered before we can remember that the ideals expressed in the founding documents of the United States are humanity's best shot at realizing humanity's true potential for good.
