For the longest time, I have been one of those people who condemned the leftists
in the media for putting the worst possible face on our war in Iraq. But I recently had an
epiphany and came to the realization that it’s not just the usual suspects -- the New York
Times, the Washington Post, the network anchors, CNN, the BBC -- who are entirely at
fault. Fully doing its part to aid and abet our Islamic foes is the military brass holding
down the cushy desk jobs at the Pentagon.
There’s no denying the liberal bias of the so-called mainstream media. I mean,
when the L.A. Times can seriously ponder if there’s really a connection between Syria
and Hezbollah, a rational person starts looking around for Alice and the White Rabbit.
When the same paper corrects its multitude of factual and statistical mistakes on a daily
basis, but never apologizes for running that trumped-up photo of the Palestinian girl
grieving over her supposedly dead father, you wonder why the rag is still in business.
And when the Times insists that Israel is killing Lebanese civilians without mentioning
that the members of Hezbollah never wear uniforms and are therefore indistinguishable
from non-combatants, you find yourself wondering if Osama bin Laden has bought
himself a newspaper.
If the Bush administration weren’t composed entirely of people terrified of being
chastised by the toothless tigers in the liberal media, they would have brought the editors
of the New York and Los Angeles Times up on charges of treason for publishing
classified material. But, unfortunately, we’re talking about politicians. Anybody who
seriously expects courageous or even upstanding behavior from a bunch of pumped-up
bureaucrats, whichever party they belong to, is seriously demented. But I, for one, have
come to expect better of the military.
Instead, it seems like every time I turn around, the guys with all the fruit salad on
their chests are bringing some group of grunts up on charges. In a war in which the
enemy dresses like civilians -- even, on occasion, like civilian women -- the boneheads at
the Pentagon are more concerned with being politically correct than they are with the
safety and the morale of our troops.
Speaking of fruit salad, we all know that these Monday morning quarterbacks in
Washington award themselves medals just for having three martini lunches and not
spilling a drop, but how is it that after all this time, I have heard that only a single
Medal of Honor has been bestowed for service in Iraq? Sergeant First Class Paul R.
Smith earned one the hard way; he died for it. If this were World War II, his face would
be on a postage stamp or at least the cover of Life magazine, a movie bio would be in the
works, and his name would be known from coast to coast. Little boys would want to
grow up to be just like him.
Are we actually expected to believe this is a war without any other heroes? Yeah,
right. Go tell it to the marines!