A Frustrated Task Force Commander in Iraq Sounds Off - on Media Distortions

A Task Force commander in Iraq provides a manifestly different account of the war in Iraq than what we see on the nightly news.

The Western mainstream media, no doubt, can point to their coverage of the war in Iraq and convince themselves that they are, in fact, telling “the truth”. In a specious and superficial way, they are telling the “truth”; however, it’s a deliberately shallow and incomplete “truth”. In reporting complex and ever-evolving events, what you leave OUT can be just as important, or even more crucial, that what you put IN.

A good analogy for Western media coverage of the Iraqi war – up to a point - is the parable of the group of blind men attempting to describe what an elephant is like. One man grabs the elephant’s ear and concludes that an elephant is like a large leaf; a second grabs the elephant’s trunk and says that an elephant is like a snake; a third touches its tail and is certain that an elephant is like a vine; a fourth a leg which is like a tree, and so on. Each is telling the “truth”, yet none comes close to successfully describing or understanding the whole picture.

Of course, in this fable the blind men are presumably acting in good faith. Conversely, the omissions of western media reporters and organizations covering the Iraqi war - relentlessly reporting on, say, only the “bad news” trunk, to the exclusion of the rest of the elephant - are clearly more deliberate and calculated. They no doubt can – or should – see the whole picture, but choose not to transmit it.

The Bush administration, Department of Defense, and the Army’s response to this deliberate incompleteness of coverage is puzzling and disappointing. The most effective counters to the relentlessly distorted and one-sided coverage of the war effort seem to be coming from the leaders and soldiers fighting the war. They’ve already got enough on their plates. Why should LTC Ryan – who, without question, is already plenty busy enough commanding a task force in combat – have to take the time to write a lengthy report to get the word out, when there’s a huge public affairs apparatus – make that several huge public affairs apparatuses – already in place within DoD and the Bush administration?

Our leaders and public affairs officials clearly need to do better in contesting and combating the big media distortions.

Thoughts on Public Education and Choice (or lack thereof)

Part of what frustrates many middle of the road and conservative parents is that too many so-called “progressive” ideas, fads, trends, and beliefs – such as those initiated, with disturbing results, by one school district mentioned here - are peddled in public schools in direct contravention of the ideals, mores, wishes, and beliefs of families that often have little recourse in terms of where they can send their children to be educated.

An obvious solution is to provide greater choice to parents concerning where they may send their children to school. Private schools immediately come to mind, but the cost is often prohibitive. The wealthy and powerful, of course, have always had school choice; it’s the middle and lower classes that have been for the most part consigned to the public school monopoly. Voucher programs and charter schools offer promising choices and alternatives to the non-rich and non-powerful – and yet who opposes them? The “progressives”!

One of the great ironies of our age is that while “progressivism” is seen as principally a characteristic of the left, and being “reactionary” as a characteristic of the right, the reverse is actually true when the subject turns to providing and promoting the most equitable and responsive system with which to educate our children.

It is the education establishment that seeks to maintain the public school quasi-monopoly status quo, or even "roll back" the clock to a more nearly complete monopoly. It seems to continuously ward off any attempts to break the dominance of public schools in the education world. School vouchers, on the other hand, are a bold and innovative means by which to expand the ideal of school choice – currently enjoyed now only by the rich and powerful – into the middle and lower classes. It is, in that respect, an inherently progressive initiative.

It’s therefore very ironic that nominal “progressives” who oppose and who seek to roll back these initiatives are in fact the true reactionaries - doing their utmost to minimize or prevent affordable, publicly subsidized access to school choice and middle-and- lower income parents’ subsequent power to choose the best educational paths and options for their children.

The UN At Its Best

Diplomad reports that the UN has demonstrated proficiency in quite a number of things.

The UN clearly excels at: conferring; meeting; coordinating for essentials such as 24-hour catering service for its officials at luxury hotels; taking credit for the actions of others; and announcing in glowing terms what they are doing and accomplishing. And what exactly have they accomplished to date? It thus far appears to be predominantly: conferring; meeting; coordinating for 24-hour catering service for its officials at luxury hotels; taking credit for the actions of others; and announcing in glowing terms what they are doing and accomplishing.

What they don’t seem to have accomplished much of, thus far, is actually delivering badly needed water, medical supplies, food, shelter, and basic health services to the millions of people impoverished and devastated by last month’s earthquake and tsunami. It’s those god-awful Americans – who are, you must understand, “very bad at coordinating” things like this – and their Australian (and Indian and Malaysian) allies that appear to be handling the bulk of those insignificant tasks thus far.

The UN - keeping its priorities straight. That's where it gets its moral authority from, no doubt.

The Unholy Alliance of Western Leftists and Iraqi Fascists

An Iraqi is stunned at the virulent anti-Americanism he encounters.

European and American leftists continue their incredible shift to the outright support of people who are, essentially, intolerant, brutal fascists. It’s ironic in the extreme.

Iraqis are on the cusp of attempting something that has not yet legitimately occurred in an Arab nation – a free, fair, and open election. And who does the virulent anti-American left support? Why, it's those elements currently doing everything they can to prevent the conduct of free, fair, and open elections. That is, the remnants of Saddam’s brutal fascist regime and their allies, the Zarqawi-led terrorists who saw the heads off of live captives. The Western leftists encourage and carry the water for those who kidnap and shoot CARE workers who have dedicated their lives to improving the lives of ordinary Iraqis. They extol the virtues and objectives of those who blow up refineries and oil pipelines that are the conduits to bringing lasting (and unpilfered) wealth to the Iraqi nation, and brutally murder volunteer election workers in broad daylight in front of conveniently positioned AP photographers. Meanwhile, they denigrate and deride the people doing their utmost to prevent these atrocities from happening – the interim Allawi government, its fledgling police and security forces, and the American forces that back them up and support them. No wonder the rhetoric of Western leftists, and the rhetoric of bin Laden, Zarqawi, and the "insurgents", have converged to the point that they are virtually indistinguishable from each other.

Western leftists have allowed their pathological hatred of the US in general, and the American President in particular, to insidiously convert them into de facto cheerleaders for outright thuggery, brutality, and murder. And make no mistake about it – the Ba’athist remnants and Zarqawi terrorists that comprise the “insurgents” are not tolerant, not liberal, and not democratic – they are as perfect a manifestation of brutally repressive and undemocratic fascism as you are likely to find in the world today.

And our lefties are rooting for them.

They are on the wrong side of history. Yet again.