MARK STEYN UNLEASHED -- Don't Count On Koppel For Whole War Story!

http://www.iconoclast.ca/NewPage11.asp ^ | MARK STEYN

[clintonbaiter]

At two seconds per name, to read out the combat deaths of the War of 1812 he'd [Koppel] have to persuade ABC to extend the show to an hour and a quarter. To read out the combat deaths of the Korean War, he'd need a 19-hour show. For World War II, he'd have to get ABC to let him read out names of the dead 24/7 for an entire week. If he wants to, I'd be happy to fly him to London so he can go on the BBC and read out the names of the 3,097,392 British combat deaths in World War I, which would take him the best part of three months, without taking bathroom breaks, or indeed pausing for breath.

As Stalin said, one death is a tragedy, 1 million is a statistic. The fact that America's dead in Iraq are not yet statistics, that they're still small enough in number to be individual tragedies Ted can milk for his show tells you the real cost of this war. In Afghanistan, the numbers are even lower, which is why ''Nightline'' hasn't bothered pulling this stunt with America's other war.

The [real] cost of war is the cost of losing it measured against the cost of winning it. We can reach our own conclusions about which the coalition's dead would opt for.....

[seowulf]

I'd like to add that our craven act of walking away from our responsibilities in Vietnam directly led to the slaughter of about two million Cambodians. I wonder if the aging far leftists in this country ever lose any sleep at night about this.

Of course the leftist/communists/Fabian socialists never lose any sleep over two million Cambodians, anymore than they would lose sleep over two million babies, or two million Iraqis, or two millions of any other people. The end justifies the means, and the end is to reshape society and individuals into their "enlightened" vision of utopia.

[Oatka]

Ted Koppel's stunt will encourage all the arabs to jeer "We will kill so many you will be reading names for weeks!. Now, Ahmed, let's start building the body count so our allies can run another show like that."

The media want to equate Iraq with Vietnam SO badly that they will resurrect any old trick if they think it will advance their cause.

As another poster said, Ted Koppel is a Cronkite wannabe.

I wonder when he will do a show displaying all the Iraqis murdered by Saddam, maybe even just those fed feet first into the shredders.

[Cicero]

Does our nation lower the flag to half-staff every time one of our own is killed in battle? Of course not. It's not that we don't mourn our dead, but it would not be proper for any but family and friends to stop and mourn for them until the war is won.

Armistice Day or Remembrance Day took place the day the war ended, and not before.

After giving the matter considerable thought, I did not lower my flag to half-staff after 9/11 despite directions from Washington to do so. My reason was that it appeared to me that we were at war, and that during a time of war you don't ordinarily lower the flag. Lowering the flag might be taken as a sign of weakness. I mourn the dead every time I pass by Ground Zero, but I don't lower my flag; I keep it flying.

It's perfectly obvious that Koppel's purpose in doing this is not only to gain notoriety and ratings, but to demoralize his audience and encourage them to call on our government to quit the war effort. That's why he is rightly an object of contempt. If he is not a traitor, he is a moral coward.

[Brian Allen]

Koppel is a slimey Limey -- and old EURO-peon Haw Haw

Don't count on Koppel for whole war story

According to Ted Koppel, dragging his gravitas like a ball and chain, ''The most important thing a journalist can do is remind people of the cost of war.''

So on Friday night on ABC he read out the names of the American men and women to die in Iraq.

Is reminding people of the ''cost of war'' really the most important thing a journalist can do? Costs don't exist in a vacuum, but relative to their benefits. For example, the cost of Ted Koppel to ABC is said to be $6 million per year. That sounds a lot when you consider that Skip, the busboy at Denny's, would be happy to do it for $28,000, but cost alone doesn't factor in the benefits of Ted's distinctive portentousness.

Likewise, the cost of war is a tragedy for the families of the American, British and other coalition forces who've died in the last year. But we owe it to the dead, always, every day, to measure their sacrifice against the mission, its aims, its successes, its setbacks. And, if the cause is still just, then you honor the fallen by pressing on to victory -- and then reading the roll call of the dead.

If that doesn't quite have the sweeps-month ratings appeal ''Nightline'' is looking for, since Ted has now established himself as a $6 million list reader he might like to remind people of the comparative costs of war. At two seconds per name, to read out the combat deaths of the War of 1812 he'd have to persuade ABC to extend the show to an hour and a quarter. To read out the combat deaths of the Korean War, he'd need a 19-hour show. For World War II, he'd have to get ABC to let him read out names of the dead 24/7 for an entire week. If he wants to, I'd be happy to fly him to London so he can go on the BBC and read out the names of the 3,097,392 British combat deaths in World War I, which would take him the best part of three months, without taking bathroom breaks, or indeed pausing for breath.

As Stalin said, one death is a tragedy, 1 million is a statistic. The fact that America's dead in Iraq are not yet statistics, that they're still small enough in number to be individual tragedies Ted can milk for his show tells you the real cost of this war. In Afghanistan, the numbers are even lower, which is why ''Nightline'' hasn't bothered pulling this stunt with America's other war.

Yes, the dead are husbands, wives, fathers, daughters, best friends, and for those who knew them in that capacity the loss is grievous. But Americans know them only as warriors, and they should honor them as such. Those British losses in the Great War reached deep into every family in the land. By contrast, in a nation of 300 million, the vast majority of families are personally untouched by military deaths, and that, paradoxically, makes it easier for the defeatists to exploit the small number of the dead as evidence of the hopelessness of our cause. The historically low rate of combat fatalities amplifies each one.

Here's where it's worth considering the cost of Ted Koppel in the broader sense. Our enemies have made a bet -- that the West in general and America in particular are soft and decadent and have no attention span; that the ''sleeping giant'' Admiral Yamamoto feared he'd wakened at Pearl Harbor can no longer be roused. If he could, he'd be a problem. But he's paunchy and effete and slumped in his Barcalounger, and he's defining decadence down: In Vietnam, it took 50,000 deaths to drive the giant away; maybe in Iraq, it will only take 500; and maybe in the next war the giant will give up after 50, or not bother at all. He has the advantage of the most powerful army on the face of the planet, but he doesn't have the stomach for war, so it's no advantage at all. He's like the fellow with the beautifully waxed Ferrari in the garage that he doesn't dare take on the potholed roads. If you're predisposed, like many Islamists and many Continentals, to this stereotype of the soft American, then the lazy, ersatz pacifist mawkishness of ''Nightline'''s gimmick pretty much confirms it: That's the cost of Koppel reminding us of ''the cost of war.''

Last week, watching John Kerry explain that he threw away his medals/his ribbons/some other guys' medals because ribbons are the same as medals/he didn't have his medals with him/his medals are personal to him/and anyway what about Bush's National Guard service, I began to resent the senator for miring this election campaign in a three-decade old quagmire. It's like an oldies station with only one record:

''Throw Some Feller's Ribbons O'er The Old Stone Wall

It's been 30 years

But I still can stall''

I don't care about his medals or about Vietnam. But I care about him trapping this new war in the prism of an old war America lost. Koppel's ''Nightline,'' after all, is in direct descent from the old Life magazine pictorials intended to demoralize. Kerry's spent so much time filtering his candidate persona through his Vietnam experience that he's given no serious thought to the war we're in the middle of. His current position is that we need to put the U.N. in charge -- presumably so they can get the oil-for-fraud program up and running again. It's barely credible even as boilerplate. In a testimony to Kerry's own peculiar psychology, he's not only the first Vietnam combat veteran but also the first prominent anti-Vietnam campaigner to run for president. And, even though the media don't care much for the senator, he's somehow seduced them into his weird preoccupation.

It's unbecoming to a great power, and very perilous. The cost of war is the cost of losing it measured against the cost of winning it. We can reach our own conclusions about which the coalition's dead would opt for.

Mark Steyn -- Sunday May 2 2004

[Brian Allen]

#24 BUMPping

[Brian Allen]

<< In Vietnam, it took 50,000 deaths to drive the giant away ..... >>

Wrong!

It took only one un-and-anti-American traitor: -- John Fonda Kohn Kerry

[And America did not, Mark Steyn, "lose" the Vietnam War. Thanks to the treasonous activities of Kohn-Kerry and his loathsome ilk, we quit it -- and FRee Vietnam lost]

[Brian Allen]

<< Koppel's a Walter Croncite wannabe. >>

Unlike the slimey Limey EURO-peon Haw Haw, KKKoppel, Conkkkrout, however intellectually and moraly challenged and notwithstanding that his lunatic-left-wing-dweller perspective causes his view of the world to be corrupted and to be distorted beyond recognition, logical rationalization, intellegent interpretation -- and/or simple fact -- and his every utterance to be stupid and to lack detectable veracity, is at least an American.

[MeekOneGOP]

Thanks for posting the full text. Steyn hits the bullseye once again.

bump !

[Paulus Invictus]

His article was indeed, just great! I especially liked his reference to the UN starting up their "oil for fraud" program again.

[cookcounty]

" No, but Koppel left out the names of those who died in Afghanistan and that was a studied decision on his part. "

Exactly. Earlier in the week, he was asked about why Afghan causalties wer excluded. He basically said they weren't important enough. Not important enough FOR HIS PURPOSES.

[Let's Roll]

I saw a clip of it on FOX News Sunday - it wasn't that good.

Faces and names on screen too briefly and two faces on screen at once and they were reading the name on the right and then moving it to the left position and then bringing up a new one on the right and reading it - it was counter intuitive and confusing.

Very annoying and frustrating. Can't imagine watching for an hour or even 10 minutes. Anyone know the ratings?

I try to pray for our brave military everyday, I don't need the hacked up mess put on by ABC to make sure I "remember".

[ValerieUSA]

*LOL* Very funny! I wouldn't hire you as a programming director - but it's very funny nonetheless.

[Tall_Texan]

If I was Programming Director for a network like Err America, I would find the annoying or boring Democrats I could find. It would go like this:

6:00 a.m. - 9:00 a.m. "Breakfast with Michael Dukakis."
9:00 a.m. - Noon "Womyns World with Molly Yard".
Noon - 3:00 p.m. "Ed Begley Jr. Unplugged"
3:00 p.m. - 6:00 p.m. "No Justice, No Peace with Cynthia McKinney".
6:00 p.m. - 9:00 p.m. "The Flynt Report with Larry Flynt".
9:00 p.m. - Midnight "Late Night with Ted Kasczynski".
Midnight - 6:00 a.m. "Viva Cuba with Peter Arnett and David Korn".

[DuncanWaring]

... the slaughter of about two million Cambodians.

Didn't do the South Vietnamese any favors, either. Remember the "Boat People" et. al.?

[Starve The Beast]

Thanks a million, Ted. I loved my country enough to die for it, and you use my face in a two-second play for ratings, and as an unwilling prop for your idiotic politics.

[kcvl]

Thanks for the link...

Our enemies have made a bet -- that the West in general and America in particular are soft and decadent and have no attention span; that the ''sleeping giant'' Admiral Yamamoto feared he'd wakened at Pearl Harbor can no longer be roused. If he could, he'd be a problem. But he's paunchy and effete and slumped in his Barcalounger, and he's defining decadence down: In Vietnam, it took 50,000 deaths to drive the giant away; maybe in Iraq, it will only take 500; and maybe in the next war the giant will give up after 50, or not bother at all. He has the advantage of the most powerful army on the face of the planet, but he doesn't have the stomach for war, so it's no advantage at all. He's like the fellow with the beautifully waxed Ferrari in the garage that he doesn't dare take on the potholed roads. If you're predisposed, like many Islamists and many Continentals, to this stereotype of the soft American, then the lazy, ersatz pacifist mawkishness of ''Nightline'''s gimmick pretty much confirms it: That's the cost of Koppel reminding us of ''the cost of war.''

[B4Ranch]

ping

[B4Ranch]

You showing well reasoned thinking, as usual.

[glock rocks]

The major difference between Koppel and Cronkite is that Koppel is irrelevant by comparison. Now that the left no longer has monopoly on the dissemination of news, it has to resort to stunts and outrageousness. And it will continue to get worse to the point that the mainstream media is no longer such, and will reduce to concentrated shrill, impotent drivel.

[Let's Roll]

Rush just said the Nightline ratings for their "tribute" to our fallen troops was down from the previous week's Friday numbers and significantly so in the major markets.