Real News Left Behind
It was 10:10 on Sunday evening, and I decided to see what the leading?news stories were on CNN?s and Fox?s respective websites. Having seen Yahoo News? top story being about Tiger Woods? car accident the other day, I suspected I knew what the answer was. Turns out, I was right. The stories were in spots designed to get major, first–or-second-glance attention.
Now, to be fair, Fox and CNN also had big stories about the police shooting (both), a woman who is helping women get mammograms (CNN), a story about AIDS guidelines (Fox) and Fox had its required “Support a Republican” story about Senator Lugar (R-IN) and his?thoughts about delaying health care reform until?”next year, the same way we put cap and trade and climate change, and talk now about the essentials: the war and money.” However, Fox had the Woods “story” on its top four list on its site, and CNN had it first on its “Latest News” list. (Oddly enough, MSNBC had the Woods “story” listed as third in its Sports section, and I actually missed it the first two times I scanned the page. MSNBC’s main section covered the police shootings, the economy, Afghanistan, Detroit’s economic needs, where investors are focusing this week and the Steelers-Ravens game. Not too bad for a liberal rag of a “news” source.)
Money drives news, as it should- news needs money to survive, after all- but once again our news is showing just how misplaced American priorities and dollars are. Stories that cover Honduras, Afghanistan, Iraq, Russia, China, the recession, the police shootings, health care reform efforts and other important news should be at the top of the list the vast majority of the time. Instead, they are pushed aside by non-news and entertainment.
This is an old rant, and says nothing new (except that MSNBC actually did a good job at something). Should those of us who care keep hammering at America’s lack of real world knowledge and news awareness, or are we wasting our time? Will we as a nation pull our heads out of *the clouds* and at least try to be aware of the world around us? Please?
The Marriage of Iraq and Afghanistan
The War in Iraq is a victory for the United States. While it was not reminiscent of the victories in the World Wars, it is a victory nonetheless. General David Petraeus said in an interview with the BBC, “This is not the sort of struggle where you take a hill, plant a flag and go home to a victory parade. … it’s not” a “war with a simple slogan.” Here is what victory means in Iraq. It means an Iraqi government that is able to protect its borders, and it means an Iraqi government that is able to protect its people, then moves forward on its path to democracy.
With Obama ordering more than 4,000 troops to Afghanistan it seems he is using a strategy similar to the controversial “surge” in Iraq which was highly successful. The 4,000 troops bolster the dispatch of an additional 17,000 forces. The President also plans on sending hundreds of additional civilians to balance the military surge.
President Obama needs to address the victory in Iraq and tell Americans as John McCain did when he spoke at The Heritage Foundation on March 26, 2009, “We can have victory in Afghanistan just as we did in Iraq”, but “it’s going to get worse before it gets better.” That is the nature of a troop surge, a short increase in casualties and then a sharp decline in them. President Obama needs to be honest with the American people about this, but it is vital that he declares victory in Iraq to boost morale in Afghanistan.
The President also seems to be embracing the controversial and polarizing nation building views of the Bush Administration. Iraq was victorious and evidence of that will come to greater fruition in years ahead when our country realizes that President Bush kept us safe and the world is a better place without Saddam Hussein. A victory in Afghanistan will undeniably improve the safety of America and of the world. ?President Obama reiterated this point on March 27, 2009; “This is not simply an American problem – far from it,” It is, instead, an international security challenge of the highest order. Terrorist attacks in London and Bali were tied to al-Qaida and its allies in Pakistan, as were attacks in North Africa and the Middle East, in Islamabad and Kabul. If there is a major attack on an Asian, European, or African city, it, too, is likely to have ties to al-Qaida’s leadership in Pakistan.”
-sam
Secretary Gates… I Disagree Sir
There is a scene in the movie Clear and Present Danger after Admiral Greer passes of cancer, and they are holding his funeral at Arlington complete with flag-draped coffin and honor guard. In the background, the Jupiter movement?s sorrowful minor notes from Holst?s The Planets symphony float through the air while friends and family pay homage. The entire scene elicits a plethora of emotions that include humble sadness but subtle adulation for the dead; a fine example of gesamtkunstwerk. Scenes like this are common in modern media, depicting the fallen soldier in his weakest, as well as strongest, moment. It is the truest testament of man?s mortality, and as a warrior, invincibility is a virtue. The strength of the phenomena lies in how the flag draped coffin is a symbol; it symbolizes immortality as well. The warrior has passed, but there is something greater, whatever you want to believe whether it is a noble cause justified in God?s eyes, or for your country and in that, your countrymen. We are fortunate enough to have people willing to wager the biggest bet possible in an effort to ensure the freedom or security of his or her friends, family or even strangers.
I am a strong supporter of Secretary Gates. I must part ways with him on his recent announcement to allow the media to utilize this powerful symbol for whatever purpose they may. There is a stipulation, of course. Sec. Gates stated that members of the family have to allow the media to do so. Sadly, these images will be used for political purposes and whatever the family?s intent may have been in allowing these pictures, what is to stop many of the malicious media (not all media of course) from doling them out to be used as propaganda? The precession of coffins off the C-17 onto an air strip is a hollowed moment. It is the return of the fallen to the land for which they fell. Revoking President George H. W. Bush?s policy banning the media from exploiting these deaths is a step in the wrong direction, and whatever the intent may be, opens the door to bastardize the reasons why any of those men and women laid down their life.
rj
