Truth
About every other week "media writer" Neal Gabler (how come I've never seen anything he writes on the Web?) complains on "Fox News Watch" that any media reporting on Iraq that isn't negative somehow paints a "false" picture of what Gabler knows is going on there.
A lot of what has been missing in the media is tales of everyday bravery by our troops on the front lines -- a point made crystal clear in some quotes from former Assistant Defense Secretary Bing West in today's Wall Street Journal:
"The Iraq war is being played out against a backdrop of bitter partisan politics in the United States. Of those on the front lines, 70% get out after four years of service, with no long-term benefits. All they want is praise for their valor and service. They want to be able to say. 'I served at Fallujah, Najaf, or Mosul' and be respected for their dedication.
"Their valor is absent from this war because it is not reported. In Fallujah for instance, 100 Marine squads engaged in 200 firefights in cement rooms, using rifles, pistols, grenades and knives. By any historical comparison, this was extraordinary. In Hue City in 1968, there was one fight inside a house. In the entire history of the SWAT teams in the United States, there have not been 200 fights with automatic weapons inside rooms. Yet the courage of our soldiers and Marines in battles in Fallujah, Najaf, etc. received little press notice. Now we face the test of whether the press will place the tragedy of Haditha in perspective, or whether Haditha will unfairly become a false symbol....
"What happens if the youth of America adopt the same fractious attitudes as their political leaders? Who then will serve? In the tone of our criticisms while we are at war, we as a nation should be very careful that we do not undercut our own martial resolve. If we as a nation lose heart, who will fight for us?"
What the tragedy in Haditha comes down to is this: Did the Marines believe that they were taking hostile fire from those homes when they cleared them? If the answer is "yes," then that should be the end of it -- it should go down in history as a tragic mistake. If they killed everyone in those two homes out of vengence, then they should pay the price.
That's all there is to it -- except for the fact that the media has done a crummy job of reporting on this issue. To read Time magazine and the voluminous reporting in newspapers and on TV, you'd think that this was some sort of police raid in Hoboken -- or Waco.
Iraq is neither of those places and the media has been holding these Marines to a standard that is unattainable in a war.
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“What happens if the youth of America adopt the same fractious attitudes as their political leaders? Who then will serve? In the tone of our criticisms while we are at war, we as a nation should be very careful that we do not undercut our own martial resolve. If we as a nation lose heart, who will fight for us?â€
I can take a very educated guess, and it will involve recruiting stations in such obviously pro-American places as Manila and Mexico City. Not to mention, promises of US Citizenship to every young male not encumbered by pregnant wives/girlfriends willing to sign up for a 4-year hitch.